ann 6. |
WESTWARD HO!
Ss":
S
The disturbance which she caused to the eyes and thoughts of the
congregation.—Chap. xxix. p. 349.
WESTWARD HO!
OR
THE VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES OF
Sit Ampas Leigh, Knight,
OF BURROUGH, IN THE COUNTY OF DEVON,
IN THE REIGN OF HER MOST GLORIOUS MAJESTY
QUEEN ELIZABETH
RENDERED INTO MODERN ENGLISH
BY CHARLES KINGSLEY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES EF. BROCK
IN TWO VOLS.—VOL. II.
Lond ow
MACMILLAN AND CO., Lrp.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CoO.
1896
The First Edition of Westward Ho! was published in 1855.
CAAP.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXY.
XXVI.
XXVIL.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX,
XXXtT.
XXXII.
XXXII.
CONTENTS ORV One ul:
THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE
Goop Sup RosE
How THEY CAME TO BARBADOS, AND FOUND NO
MEN THEREIN
How THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
How THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION UNDER THE
TREE AT HIGUEROTE
Tur INQUISITION IN THE INDIES
Tae BANKS oF THE META
How AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL
How THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN .
How THEY TOOK THE GREAT GALLEON
How SAnvaTION YEO FOUND HIS LirrtE Marp
AGAIN
How AMYAS cAME Homer THE THIRD TIME
How THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS STOPPED BY
THE QUEEN’s COMMAND
How tut ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS TESTIFIED
AGAINST CROAKERS
Tur Great ARMADA
How AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA
How AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL .
PAGE
27
36
54
91
129
155
161
186
219
259
386
410
438
467
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. IL.
The disturbance which she caused to the eyes and ae
thoughts of the congregation . : Frontispiece
Chapter 16, headpiece . : fi S ; 1
‘“Gave her I know not what of propnoaticg and diate 11
Amyas fetched him out by the collar. : : : 21
Chapter 17, headpiece . : : : : ; . 27
Chapter 18, headpiece . i ; . ; 36
** Yield idolaters! Yield, Spanish duel Lane : : 42
Fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand . ; : 50
Chapter 19, headpiece . : 54
The cavalier . . . lifted his hat donetsoale and coed
her, bowing ion : : 79
The giant threw him over his shoulder and planged
blindly on. : : : ‘ : : : 86
Chapter 20, headpiece . : : 7 ; 91
Then began a fight most fierce and fell . : : pen 1D
A wild figure . . . rushed upward at the Spaniard dn daly
Chapter 21, headpiece . , . : Bie 29)
Cary . . . bullied and jeered on tite str gelen a . 184
They imelé all together and received the Holy Communion 150
Chapter 22, headpiece . : 6 : ; ; a albD)
Chapter 23, headpiece . ; : : 2 lL
Caught up a bow, and held it fiercely foward: him . 180
Chapter 24, headpiece . 6 : : ; : - 186
viii ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. IE
Consulting the Daughter of the Sun
High in air gleamed Amyas’s blade _
Chapter 25, headpiece . i
Clasped him in her arms, and ieaped waite him fein the
narrow ledge into the abyss : :
“Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain’ s
curse might be like?â€
Chapter 26, headpiece . :
His eyes staring on vacancy, wale the two pleats sisod
as close against the wall as they could squeeze them-
selves :
Chapter 27, headpiece .
The honest fellow, falling on his ieee Gopaed a
canora’s hands with kisses
Chapter 28, headpiece ;
She threw her arms round his sect ai bent iter fair
head over his.
Chapter 29, headpiece
The wonder of the little boys of Northain
Chapter 30, headpiece
‘‘My Lord, my Lord! they’m coming !â€
Chapter 31, headpiece
The tall, mail-clad figure of his foe la up upon the
poop-railing e
Chapter 32, headpiece
‘Shame !†cried emus hurling his sword far into Bp
sea. ;
They tired’: a little space an waeched es ;
Chapter 33, headpiece
She seized both his hands, and segocd then with heiases
PAGE
190
214
219
227
246
259
283
806
822
327
334
347
372
386
405
410
429
438
a rl
Cl
ot fore es
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.â€
Str Andrew Barton.
Ler 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
honour 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 honoured
Drake with the dignity of knighthood. “At which
VOL. IIL. B Ww. H.
2 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 builé under a lucky planet.â€
There she has remained since as a show, and more-
over 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 savoury steams which
issue from those windows which once were port-holes,
and the rushing to and fro along the river brink, and
across that lucky bridge, of white-aproned waiters
from the neighbouring 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 father-land.
At the head of the table sits the lord mayor ; whom
all readers will recognise 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
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 3
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
Christchurch 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 Alder-
IL, B2
4 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
man 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 him-
self, 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
Sydney 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,
“Tt’s all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry
land with a good glass of wine before you; but yowd
find it another guess sort of business, knocking about
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 5
among the icebergs with your beard frozen fast to your
ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit squeamish
about the stomach.â€
“That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir,
if by it I could win the honour which Her Majesty
bestowed on you, when her own ivory hand waved a
farewell kerchief to your ship from the windows of
Greenwich Palace.â€
“Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to com-
plain of lack of favours, 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
Honourable Sir Walter Raleigh.â€
“Show him in, man. Sir Walter’s friends are
ours.â€
Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the door-
way.
“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.â€
“Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But Sir
Walter—you will excuse me,â€â€”and he gave Raleigh
a look which was enough for his quick wit. Turning
pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into an
I. B38
6 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 %â€
“Nay, my Lord Mayor,†said Sidney, “not from
the dead, but from the realm of everlasting life.â€
“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.â€
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 neighbour,
“What will the Queen say ?â€
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.
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 7
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 Grenvile, 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
8 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 smiths.
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 build-
ing after another.
“ And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank
of palaces ?â€
“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, for ever. All things move Westward-
ho. Perhaps we may move that way ourselves, some
day, Amyas.â€
“What do you mean by that strange talk ?â€
“Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of
the heavens, and flows for ever from east to west. Is
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 9
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 ?â€
“ 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.â€
“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?â€
“God forbid, Frank !â€
“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.â€
“Complain of no one for fleeing thither?†asked
Amyas. “That is more than I do.â€
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.â€
10 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
“Do you wish me to go, then?â€
“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 2
“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.â€
“True heart! noble heart!†cried Frank. “I
knew you would be staunch !â€
““Westward-ho it is, then ?â€
“Can we escape ?â€
“Weâ€
“ Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me ?â€
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!â€
Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in
his pretty way.
“TI 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.â€
“But Frank,—my mother ?â€
“My mother knows all; and would not have us
unworthy of her.â€
“Tmpossible! She will never give you up!â€
“All things are possible to them that believe in
‘l
| aan
Foe)
/ =) SN) y | Sr
“Gave her I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics.â€â€”
Chap. xvi. p. 11.
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 11
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 con-
cerning 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 honour, Amyas—my oath——â€
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 !â€
“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,
12 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 sacri-
ficed Himself for you.â€
“O mother! mother!†said Amyas, “and do you
not hate the very sight of me—come here to take
away your first-born ?â€
“My boy, God takes him, and not you. And ifI
dare believe in such predictions, Doctor Dee assured
me that some exceeding honour awaited you both in
the west, to each of you according to your deserts.â€
“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.â€
“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
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 13
and wash for you. I suppose it is as easy to play the
good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!â€
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.â€
“How?†cried both together, aghast.
“T must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adven-
turers; 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.â€
“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, honourable 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
battle-field. ‘And yet,†said she to herself, “is this
but another of the self-willed idols which I must re-
14 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
nounce 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 ?â€
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.â€
“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.â€
“Plato’s Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight
which they had never beheld.â€
Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit,
made no answer to it, and there the matter ended for
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 15
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 answei,
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 con-
science, 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 awful-
ness endurable, she turned to Hatton and asked,
‘What say you, Mouton? Is he humbled suffi:
ciently?’ and so dismissed me.â€
“Heigh ho!†yawned Amyas;
“If the bridge had been stronger,
My tale had been longer.â€
‘““Amyas! Amyas!†quoth Frank, solemnly, “you
16 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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.â€
“Humph! ‘There’s some sense in that,†quoth
Amyas. “Id 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!â€
Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh’s com-
panion 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 Fairy Queen.â€
“ And you no less, madam,†said Spenser. ‘“ What
were the story of the Gracchi worth without the figure
of Cornelia? If I honour the fruit, I must not forget
the stem which bears it. Frank, I congratulate you.â€
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 17
“Then you know the result of my interview,
mother 2â€
“JT 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.â€
“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 ?â€
“Knighthood 2†cried Amyas. ‘“ You never told me
that, Frank !â€
“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 hon-
our, which crowned. heads are fain to seek from their
own subjects.â€
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 favourite, that having
already knighted him, she had nothing better to be-
stow. Jt 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 baronet-
cies; a new order of hereditary knighthood which
was the laughing-stock of the day, and which (how-
ever venerable it may have since become) reflects
anything but honour upon its first possessors.
“T owe you no thanks, Colin,†said Frank, “for
VOL, IL. ( W. H
18 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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.â€
“What, then? you will not take it from a foreign
prince ?â€
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 ?â€
“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.â€
“T have remembered it for many a day; and re-
membered, too, that the garments of the knights may
need the same tokens as their Captain’s.â€
“Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood
enough to cleanse all sin, without the sacrifice of our
own ?â€
“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 Fairy
Queen. If so, the manuscripts must have been lost
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 19
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 Brimble-
combe, 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
20 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 Newfound-
land adventure, he had determined to take none but
picked men ; and by dint of labour 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 school-fellow 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 â€â€”a handsome, idle, clever fellow, who used his
scholarship, of which he had picked up some smatter-
ing, 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 scandalised John Brimblecombe by all manner
of heretical arguments, half Anacreontic, half smack-
ing 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 roystered it in
taverns with Marlowe, to die as Marlowe did, by a
footman’s sword in a drunken brawl. But in those
Amyas fetched him out by the collar.—Chap. xvi. p. 21.
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 21
stern days such weak and hysterical spirits had no
fair vent for their “humours,†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 honour, 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 con-
fessed, 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 villany ; 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,
Il. C2
22 THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 harbouring “Egyptians,â€
which was then a heavy offence—a gipsy disguise
being a favourite 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 de-
parture 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
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 23
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’ 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.â€
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 de-
pend 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
Il, C3
24. THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE
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 hilltops right into Plymouth town, cutting off the
heads of Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart,
and thereby purging Plymouth harbour 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 monu-
ment better than of brass or marble, not merely
honourable to me, but useful to my countrymen.â€!
Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram, compar-
ing 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.
1 This noble monument of Drake’s piety and public spirit
still remains in full use.
OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE. 95
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 in-
fallible, 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 dis-
appointment angered him, till on the 15th of Novem-
ber, 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.â€
The next day being Sunday, the whole crew re-
ceived 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 sackbut, 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.
26 THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE.
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 for
ever.
And Mrs, Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and
bowed her head and worshipped; and then went
home to loneliness and prayer.
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.†—Conuripar.
Lanp! 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 won-
der and fable, of boundless hope and possibility. Sick
men crawled up out of their stifling hammocks ; strong
men fell on their knees and gaye God thanks and
all eyes and hands were stretched eagerly sorrel 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, “T am the faithful friend of those who dare!â€
“Blow freshly, freshlier yet, thou good trade- wind, of
whom it is written that He makes the winds His
28 HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS,
angels, ministering breaths to the heirs of His salva-
tion. 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 !â€
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 sap-
phire 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.â€
“Barbados? I never heard of it.â€
“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 harbourage to the
south and west of it, I remember.â€
“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.â€
“‘T recollect now,†said Amyas, “some talk between
him and poor Sir Humphrey about an island here.
AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN. 29
Would God he had gone thither instead of to New-
foundland !â€
“Nay, then,†said Yeo, “he is in bliss now with
the Lord; and you would not have kept him from
that, sir?â€
“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?â€
All approved the counsel except Frank, who was
silent.
“Come fellow-adventurer,†said Cary, “we must
have your voice too.â€
“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.â€
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 Bridge-
town now stands. All eyes were eagerly fixed on the
low wooded hills which slept in the moonlight, spangled
by fire-flies 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 mono-
tonous 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.
30 HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS,
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.â€
“T say, Gunner, be there goold to that island %â€
“Never heard of none; and so much the better
for it,†said Yeo, drily.
“But, I say, Gunner,†said a poor scurvy-stricken
cripple, licking his lips, “be there oranges and lim-
mons there ?â€
“Not of my seeing ; but plenty of good fruit down
to the beach, thank the Lord. There comes the dawn
at last.â€
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 van-
ished, leaving them to quiver in the burning glare;
AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN. 31
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, sit-
ting on the sandy turf, defiant of galliwasps and jack-
spaniards, 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 scen
32 HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS,
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 patron-
ising air, as one who had seen the wonders already,
and was above being astonished at them.
“New, new; everything new!†said Frank, medi-
tatively. “Oh, awful feeling! All things changed
around us, even to the tiniest fly and flower; yet we
the same ; the same for ever!â€
Amyas, to whom such utterances were altogether
sibylline and unintelligible, answered by—
“Took, Frank, that’s a colibri You've heard of
colibris ?â€
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 !â€
“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.â€
“Not phantoms in thy sense, good fellow, but in
AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN. 33
the sense of those who know the worthlessness of all
below.â€
“Tl 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 â€â€”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.â€
“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 ?â€
“ And in the meanwhile,†said Amyas, “this earth’s
quite good enough, at least here in Barbados.â€
“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 ?â€
“J can’t tell. There’s more fish in the water than
VOL, II. D w.
34 HOW THEY CAME TO BARBADOS,
ever came out of it, and more wonders in the world,
[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.â€
“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.â€
“JT 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?â€
And so the two wandered on together through the
AND FOUND NO MEN THEREIN. 35
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. 3
“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.â€
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 ex-
pected 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,
II. D2
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. 1 grant ye, upon instinct.
Henry IV. Pt. 1.
Tuey had slipped past the southern point of Grenada
in the night, and were at last within that fairy rmg
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 new-comers 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
HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS AT MARGARITA. 37
unpoetic eyes could not behold without awe and excite-
ment 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, inter-
dicted 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 aizr,
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 cande-
II, D3
38 MlOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
labra, 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 south-
ward 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 aman 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 road-
stead, the breeze blowing fresh toward the shore (as
it usually does throughout those islands in the after-
noon. 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
AT MARGARITA. 39
pinnace and the boat. Yeo would have had them
show Spanish colours, 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.â€
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 Brimble-
combe, 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.â€
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,
40 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
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
inboard, 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?â€
Whereon up the side he scrambled, and the captain
fired a pistol at him. Cary knocked him over, un-
willing 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 adven-
AT MARGARITA, 4]
ture: 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 !â€â€”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 valour, 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 Iam 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. Zn
manus tuas. Orate pro animé: te
42 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
And so forth, in more frantic case than ever was
Panurge in that his ever-memorable sea-sickness ; 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 strqng
was the delusion on him) had not his friends, after
much arguing on their part, and anger on his, per-
_ suaded 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
“Yield, idolaters! Yield, Spanish dogs !â€â€”Chap. xviii. p. 42,
AT MARGARITA, 43
Brimblecombe had so valorously boarded, were cer-
tain frails of leaves packed neatly enough, which being
opened were full of goodly pearls, though somewhat
brown (for the Spaniards used to damage the colour
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 savour.â€
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 ?â€
To which Jack very meekly answered, “ Yes.â€
“Then I will deal with thee after the manner of
those ancient sages, and ask whether the greater must
not contain the less ?â€
44 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
Jack,—Yes, sure.
Frank.—And that which is more than a part, con-
tain 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.â€
Frank.—Then a priest containeth a man, and is a
man, and something over—viz. his priesthood ?
Jock (who saw whither this would lead).—I sup-
pose so,
Frank.—Then, if a priest show himself no man, he
shows himself all the more no priest ?
“Tl tell you what, Master Frank,†says Jack,
“you may be right by logic; but sharks aren’t logic,
nor don’t understand it neither.â€
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
AT MARGARITA. 45
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!â€
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 savours 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 ex-
cised 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
46 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
gross vapours, 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 Mani-
cheeism, 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.â€
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
AT MARGARITA. 47
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.â€
“J 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 stead-
fast 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
48 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
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, ad-
miring 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 anignoramus. Also one of our men brought in
two great black fowls which he had shot with a cross-
bow, bodied and headed like a capon, but bigger than
AT MARGARITA. 49
any eagle, which the Spaniards call cwrassos ; 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.â€
‘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 counte-
nance ; 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 be-
held 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
VOL. II. E W. HL
50 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
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 Col-
brand, 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.â€
“Come back, Jack ! are you mad 2†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 ina 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 4â€
MY FOR IIRS
Spee
are Ste
Sere
ea
Fell on with his sword like a very Colbrand.—Chap. xviii. p. 50.
AT MARGARITA. 51
“Nineteen, at the least,†quoth Cary, “and seven
with one back stroke ;†and then showed Brimble-
combe 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 2â€
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 valour 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
52 HOW THEY TOOK THE PEARLS
as I came to that, ‘out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant in fight, tured 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 valour 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.â€
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 con-
tent 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 succoured
him, winning thereby much good-will. ‘And indeedâ€
(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
AT MARGARITA. 53
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 un-
derstanding 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.â€
——
—S=_
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.â€
Winning of Cales.
Tuer men would gladly have hawked awhile round
Margarita and Cubagua for another pearl prize. But
Amyas, having as he phrased it “fleshed his dogs,â€
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 Caraccas mountains ; beside which
all hills which most of the crew had ever seen seemed
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 55
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 Brimble-
combe’s by Exmoor; and the latter, to Cary’s infinite
amusement, spent a whole day holding on by the rig-
ging, 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,â€
for either ship; but Amyas and Frank were both
unwilling.
“Why, Yeo, you said that one day more would
bring us to La Guayra.â€
‘All the more reason, sir, for doing the Lord’s
work thoroughly, when He has brought us safely so
far on our journey.â€
“She can pass well enough, and no loss,â€
II, E3
56 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
“Ah sirs, sirs, she is delivered into your hands, and
you will have to give an account of her.â€
“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.â€
Yeo shook his head sadly. “Ah, sirs, a lady
brought Captain Oxenham to ruin.â€
“You do not dare to compare her with this one ?â€
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.â€
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.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 57
“Metal floats in these seas, you sce,†quoth Cary.
“There’s a fresh marvel, for you, Frank.â€
“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 ?â€
“T 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 ?â€
“TI suspect they just take us for Spaniards, and
want to sell their cocoa-nuts. See, the canoe is laden
with vegetables.â€
“Hail them, Yeo!†said Amyas. “You talk the
best Spanish, and I want speech of one of them.â€
Yeo did so; the canoe, without more ado, ran
alongside, and lowered her felucca sail, while a splen-
did 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,
58 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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.â€
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.â€
The Indian laid the coin down on the deck, and
crossing himself, looked Amyas in the face.
“No, Sefior! 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.â€
A growl arose from those of the men who under-
stood 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 informa-
tion.
“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 !â€
The Indian, with a shrewd smile, pointed to haltf-
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 59
a-dozen different objects, ‘saying to each, “Not
Spanish.â€
“Well, and what of that?â€
“None but Spaniards and free Guayquerias have a
right to sail these seas.â€
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.â€
The Indian paused, incredulous and astonished.
“Overboard with you!†quoth Amyas. “Don’t
you know when you are well off?â€
“Most illustrious Seftor,†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.â€
“Plague on you, sirrah!†squeaked Jack Brimble-
combe. “Have I atail? Look here!â€
“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 Sefior, 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.â€
“To look for us! On the watch for us!†said Cary.
60 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
“Tmpossible ; lies! Amyas, ons is some trick of the
rascal’s to frighten us away.â€
“Don Guzman came out but yesterday to look for
us? Are you sure you spoke truth ?â€
“ As I live, Sefior, he and another ship, for which
I took yours.â€
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! IfI had but done my
duty, all would have gone right !â€
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 burn-
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 61
ing 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.â€
“Is it a rich place %†asked Cary.
“Very, they say.â€
“Ts 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.â€
“T don’t know,†quoth Amyas. “Lads, could you
climb those hills, do you think 2?â€
“Rather higher than Harty Point, sir: but it de-
pends pretty much on what’s behind them.â€
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 capi-
tal, if any man dare try it. In spite of the shadow
of the mountain, the whole place wore a dusty and
62 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 harbour? 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-look-
ing craft, at sight of which Yeo gave a long wheugh,
“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.â€
“We shall open her astern of the galleys in another
minute,†said Amyas. “Look out, Cary, your eyes
are better than mine.â€
“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.â€
“Tn 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.â€
“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.â€
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 63
“Quite true,†said Amyas. “Game cocks are game
cocks, but reason’s reason.â€
“Tf the Philistines are not coming out, they are
going to send a messenger instead,†quoth Cary.
“Took out, all thin skulls!â€
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. 4
“T don’t altogether like this,†quoth Amyas.
“What do they mean by firing on us without warn-
ing? And what are these ships of war doing here?
Drew, you told me the armadas never lay here.â€
“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,â€
“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 ?â€
“True, sir. They must have come from Santa
Martha, at the least ; perhaps from Carthagena. And
that would take a month at least going and coming.â€
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.â€
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
64 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 nought in an hour.
“Tt 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 with-
out defence.â€
“As impossible as to challenge Don Guzman while
he is not here,†said Cary.
“T 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 if
“For her?†imterrupted Frank. “If we show that
we are aware of her existence, her name is blasted in
the eyes of those jealous Spaniards.â€
“And as for respecting our flag of truce, gentle-
men,†said Yeo, “if you will take an old man’s ad-
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 65
vice, 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 licence to trade like honest men. And
yet, after they had granted us licence, 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.â€
“They will be, soon enough, then,†said Amyas.
“T can see soldiers coming down the landing-stairs.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
Yeo shook his head. “There are plenty more
towns along the coast more worth trying than this,
sir: but Heaven’s will be done !â€
And as they spoke, the sun plunged into the sea,
and all was dark.
VOL. II. F Ww. T
66 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA,.
At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till mid-
night. 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, plunder-
ing 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 distin-
guished 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 Havanna, and La Guayra and St. Yago de
Leon will not escape their share. Captain Amyas
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 67
Preston and Captain Sommers, the colonist of the
Bermudas, or Sommers’ Islands, will land, with a
foree 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.
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
* 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.
68 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 un-
willing 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 ?â€
All were silent awhile. At last John Brimble-
combe spoke.
“Show me the way to do it, Mr, Frank, and I will
er
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.â€
“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.â€
“Of death?†said Cary. “I should have said, of
life. God forgive me! but man might wish to live
for ever, if he had such a world as this wherein to
live.â€
“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
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 69
ideas of Nature and her powers, stand day and night,
erying, ‘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 splendours 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 Hin,
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 !â€
“Frank! Frank! remember our mother !â€
“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 honour, 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.â€
“What would you do, then?â€
“Go up to that house, Amyas, and speak with her,
if Heaven gives me an opportunity, as Heaven, I feel
assured, will give.â€
“And do you call that no rashness ?â€
“Ts any duty rashness? Is it rash to stand amid
the flying bullets, if your Queen has sent you? Is it
70 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
more rash to go to seek Christ’s lost lamb, if God and
your own oath have sent you? John Seats
answered that question for us long ago.’
“Tf 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.â€
“T 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.â€
“Some one must go with you, Frank,†said Amyas;
“if it were only to bring back the boats’ crew in
case †and he faltered.
“Tn 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 !â€
“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 honour of going with him.â€
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 71
“Lots?†said Amyas. “I don’t like leaving such
grave matters to chance, friend John.â€
“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?â€
“Right, John!†said, Frank. “So did the apostles
choose their successor, and so did holy men of old de-
cide 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 govern-
ments 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 !â€
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.â€
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.â€
“Ah, that it had been I!†said Jack; though I
suppose I was too poor a body to have such an honour
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!â€
72 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
“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.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
After this sort of temper had been exhibited, three
or four more came forward—Yeo was very anxious to
go, but Amyas forbade him.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 73
“T'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.â€
“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.â€
So the crew was made up; but ere they pushed
off, Amyas called Cary aside—
“Tf I perish, Will "
“Don’t talk of such things, dear old lad.â€
“TI 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.â€
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
74. WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 !â€
“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 !â€
“But if not,†said Amyas, who had no such
expectation, “what is your plan ?â€
“T have none.â€
“None ?â€
“T 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.â€
Amyas 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.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 75
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 under-
standing 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 em-
balming 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 find-
ing, instead of a battle-field 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.â€
“Did I not entreat,†answered he very quietly, “to
go alone ?â€
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,
76 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA,
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 fire-flies, 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 coloured light of the
fire-flies, 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!â€
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
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 77
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 des-
perate 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
barbecu !†,
It was indeed time to stop; for on the barbecu, 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.â€
“Wait here, and I will go up gently towards the
window. She maysee me. She will see me asI step
into the moonlight. At least I know an air by which
she will recognise me, if I do but hum a stave.â€
“Why, you do not even know that that light is
hers !—Down, for your life !â€
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, aves, or what not.
The light above was extinguished instantly.
“Did you see her?†whispered Frank.
“No.â€
“T did—the shadow of the face, and the neck!
Can I be mistaken?†And then, covering his face
78 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
with his hands, he murmured to himself, “Misery!
misery! So near, and yet impossible ?â€
“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 â€â€”
“As his mistress? or as his wife? Do I know
that yet, Amyas, and can I depart until I know ?â€
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, â€
“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
re
The cavalier . . . lifted his hat courteously, and joined her, bowing low.—
Chap. xix. p. 79.
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 79
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 fol-
lowed. 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.
“Tt is Hustace, our cousin! How came he here,
in the name of all the fiends?â€
“Hustace! 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,
80 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 eaves-droppers.â€
“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 2â€
“Husband !†whispered Frank faintly to Amyas.
Thank God, thank God! Iam content. Let us go.â€
But to go was impossible ; for, as fate would have
it, the two had stopped just opposite them.
“The inestimable Seiior 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?â€
“Tf you do, madam†(this was spoken in a harder
tone), “it were wise for you to try them less severely,
than by wandering down toward 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.â€
“Carry me off? I will die first !â€
“Who can prove that to him? Appearances are
at least against you.â€
“My: love to him, and his trust for me, sir
1??
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 81
“His trust? Have you forgotten, madam, what
passed last week, and why he sailed yesterday ?â€
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 2â€
Eustace was silent; but his face worked more
fiercely than ever.
“How can he ever know it 2â€
“Why should he not know it?â€
“Ah!†she burst out passionately, “why not, in-
deed, while you are here? You, sir, the tempter, you
the eaves-dropper, you the sunderer of loving hearts!
You, serpent, who found our home a paradise, and
see it now a hell!â€
“Do you dare to accuse me thus, madam, without
a shadow of evidence ?â€
“Dare? I dare anything, for I know all! I have
watched you, sir, and I have borne with you too long.â€
“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 seck 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
VOL, IT, G Ww. 4H,
82 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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 !â€
“Depart with your Virgin Mother, sir, and tempt
meno 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 for ever, 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!â€
The brothers listened breathless with surprise as
much as with rage. Love and conscience, and per-
haps, 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,—
“T 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?â€
“Me? with you?â€
“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
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 83
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——â€
“She is lost if his dead body is found by her.â€
“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.â€
“ Are you mad, madam, to betray yourself by your
own cries? The negroes will be 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 !â€
“What do you mean, sir?â€
“Let your woman’s wit supply the rest: and for-
get not him who thus saves you from disgrace.â€
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. Wel-
come, 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 !â€
“Liar!†cried Frank. “She never knew of our
bein, 2
84 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
“Credat Judeus!†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
thé 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!â€
“You are lost, then,—and I have ruined you!â€
“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 honour!†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 ap-
pearances 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
?
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 85
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.
“Tt 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 be-
fore 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 honour, 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
Te G2
86 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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.â€
“ Amyas! what do you take me for? My madness
brought you hither: your devotion shall not bring
me back without you.â€
“Together, then |â€
And putting Frank’s arm. through his, they hurried
down, shouting to their men.
The boat was not fifty yards off : Pat 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?â€
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!â€
on.
ged blindly
er, and plun,
The giant threw him over his should
hap. xix. p. 86.
C
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 87
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 governor's 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 re-
collects 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 be-
fore 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.
I. G3
88 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
“What's this?â€
“All that are left of us,†says Simon Evans of
Clovelly.
“Al?†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. P
“Where is he! Why don’t you speak; forward
there ?â€
“Because we have nought 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!â€
The waves are leaping fierce and high before a
furious land-breeze. Return is impossible.
“Qowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have
left him behind.â€
“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
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA. 89
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 %â€
Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just.
“T 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.â€
“How did I come here, then ?â€
“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.â€
But William Frost was lying senseless in the bot-
tom 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 ?â€
“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
90 WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA.
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.
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 savourly 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 favour they had found ;
Then beating up their colours,
The fight they did renew ;
And turning to the Spaniards,
A thousand more they slew.â€
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
92 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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!â€
he shouted. “If Drake took Nombre de Dios, we can
take La Guayra.†And every voice shouted, “ Yes.â€
“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.â€
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.
“Tf 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.â€
“Amen !†cried Cary ; and the ship was kept still
closer to the wind.
Amyas had revived at the sight of battle. He no
é
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 93
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 cheer-
fully as of old—
“Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to
breakfast, and after that clear for action.â€
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 especi-
ally for our dear brother Mr. Francis Leigh, perhaps
captive among the idolaters ;†and so they rose.
“Now, then,†said Amyas, “to breakfast.
Frenchman fights best fasting, a Dutchman drunk, an
Englishman full, and a Spaniard when the devil is in
him, and that’s always.â€
“And good beef and the good cause are a match
for the devil,†said Cary. ‘Come down, Captain;
you must eat too.â€
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 !
94 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
“There are three of them, you see, my masters,â€
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.â€
“J 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 ?â€
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 bul-
warks, 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 maindeck, 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
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 95
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 Gf I recollect right)
but one private man-of-war, Sir Richard Hawkins’s
Dainty, had ever struck their colours to the enemy.
What was it which enabled Sir Richard Grenvile’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 care-
lessness 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 ?
96 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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 Medi-
terranean, 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 manceuvring, which utterly con-
founded 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†(razés), which left those on
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS, 97
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-worksâ€) on the poop
and forecastle, thus giving to the men a shelter, which
was further increased by strong bulk-heads (‘“cobridge-
headsâ€) across the main deck below, dividing the ship
thus into a number of separate forts, fitted with
swivels (‘‘bases, fowlers, and murderersâ€) and . loop-
holed 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 com-
manded absurd barriers of rank and blood, which for-
VOL. IL H W. HL
98 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
bade to his pride any labour 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) indig-
nantly 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 over-ridden 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 honour 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
AND ENGLISH MASTIFTS. 99
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 Spaniard, 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, Cortes,
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 organised 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 honour 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 overcurious. The gunners
are exempted from all labour 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 harbour
under the decks. For in fair or foul weather, in storms,
sun, or rain, they must pass void of covert or succour.â€
100 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
This is the account of one who was long prisoner
on board their ships; let it explain itself, while I re-
turn 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 !â€
Whereon (laugh not, reader, for it was the fashion
of those musical, as well as valiant days) up rose that
noble old favourite 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.
' “Tt shall fly to a better fiddle-bow presently, sir,
an I have the luck â€
“Steady, helm!†said Amyas. ‘ What is he after
now ?â€
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.
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 101
“He does though, and means to fight us,†cried
another. “See, he is hauling up the foot of his main-
sail: but he wants to keep the wind of us.â€
“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.â€
Bang went one of the Spaniard’s bow guns, and the
shot went wide. Then another and another, while
the men fidgeted about, looked at the priming of their
muskets, and loosened their arrows in the sheaf.
“Lie down, men, and sing a psalm. When I want
you, PI 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.â€
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 then choking her with
cream. Drew, there, are your men ready ?â€
“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
102 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
the manceuvre, 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 !â€
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 mizen 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 helmsmen killed, staggered
helplessly 2 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.â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 103
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 a-piece, 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 port-holes, 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 a-head.
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 armour 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 sicken-
ing musky smell, as of a pack of kenneled 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
104 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
in English ears, from the stories of their own country-
men, 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 2â€
‘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.â€
The two galleys came on abreast of each other,
some forty yards apart. To outmancuvre their oars
as he had done the ship’s sails, Amyas knew was im-
possible. To run from them, was tg be caught be-
tween 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 tower-
ing 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
AND ENGLISH MASTIFYFS, 105
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 discrimi-
nation ; for the larboard galley, crippled but not un-
daunted, swung round across his stern, and hooked
herself venomously on to him.
It was a move more brave than wise; for it pre-
vented 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
106 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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 !â€
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!â€
“Who be you, in the name of the Lord 2â€
“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 !â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 107
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 todo? 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, loth to lose the chance of freeing a country-
man.
“Never a one, sir, thank God.â€
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, un-
less 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
108 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
the news, has rushed up on deck to welcome his old
comrades, and—
“Tg Michacl Heard, my cousin, here among you?â€
Yes, Michael Heard is there, white-headed rather
from misery than age; and the embracings and ques-
tionings begin afresh.
“Where is my wife, Salvation Yeo?â€
“With the Lord.â€
“ Amen!†says the old man, with a short shudder.
“T thought so much ; and my two boys 2?â€
«With the Lord.â€
The old man catches Yeo by the arm.
“How, then?†Itis 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!â€
“They couldn’t die better, cousin Yeo. Where’s
my girl Grace ?â€
“Died in childbed.â€
“ Any childer ?â€
‘Nom
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 awhile
longer—’t won’t be long.â€
“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.â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS, 109
“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 3 80
that all went well, until the fatal year 1574, when,
“much against the minds of many of the Spaniards
themselves, that crucl 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 proselytising, 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
110 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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 remedi-
less ;†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
“cave God thanks devoutly for the favour they had
found ;†and then with one accord, at Jack’s leading,
sang one and all the ninety-fourth Psalm :1
“Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong ;
Vengeance belongs to thee,â€â€™ ete.
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,
1 The crew of the Tobie, cast away on the Barbary coast a
few years after, ‘‘began with heavy hearts to sing the 12th
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 ENGLISH MASTIFFS. LTT
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.â€
“That’s true,†said one, “for one honest man is
worth two rogues.â€
“And one culverin three of their footy little
ordnance,†said another. “So when you will, Captain,
and have at her.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
“Whing, whing,†went the Spaniard’s shot, like so
many humming-tops, through the rigging far above
112 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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 2â€
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 dang-
ling wreck.
“Forward, and cut away the wreck!†said Amyas,
unmoved. ‘“Small-arm men, be ready. He will be
aboard of us in five minutes !â€
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 Dolo-
rosa’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 !â€
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 !â€
sweeping them back by showers of arrows and musquet
balls, thrusting them down with pikes, hurling gren-
ades and stink-pots from the tops; while the swivels
on both sides poured their grape, and bar, and chain,
and the great maindeck guns, thundering muzzle to
\ KN
GY
ey
Lee
\
AQ
N\ ANN
mu CE
Then began a fight most fierce and fell—Chap. xx. p. 112.
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 1138
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 armour, 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 cheer-
ing, thrusting, hewing, and hauling, here, there, and
everywhere, like any common mariner, and filling
them with a spirit of self-respect, fellow-feeling, and
VOL, II. I W. He
114 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
personal daring, which the discipline of the Spaniards,
more perfect mechanically, but cold and tyrannous,
and crushing spiritually, never could bestow. . The
black-plumed Sefior 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 fore-
castle, 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
Inkermann), that “the English never fight better
than in their first battle.â€
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 con-
science would allow him, found, when he turned to a
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS, 115
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 mus-
tachios 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 sink-
ing by the head!†And with much ado some were
dragged back, some leaped back—all but old Michael
Heard.
116 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
With hair and beard floating in the wind, the
bronzed naked figure, like some weird old Indian
fakir, still climbed on steadfastly wp the mizzen-chains
of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.
“Come back, Michael! Leap while you may !â€
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!â€
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.â€
“Tell him if he fires again, [1 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.â€
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,
1??
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 117
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.â€
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. Sefior,†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
& buena querra.â€
The Spaniard lifted his hat, and bowed courteously,
and answered, “Impossible, Sefior. No querra is good
which stains my honour.â€
“God have mercy on you, then !â€
“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-pié
in his glistening black armour, 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.
“Fe shall not carry that flag to the devil with
him ; I will have it yet, if I die for it!†said Will
118 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
Cary, and rushed to the side to leap overboard: but
Amyas stopped him.
“Let him die as he has lived, with honour.†|
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 head-piece
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 afew 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.â€
And then, suddenly collecting themselves, as men
awakened from a dream, half-a-dozen desperate - gall-
ants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped overboard,
swam toward the flag, and towed it alongside in
triumph.
“Ah!†gaid Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy
up over the side; “ah! it was not for nothing that
A wild figure . . . rushed upward at the Spaniard.—Chap. xx. p. 118.
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 119
we found poor Michael! He was always a good
comrade—nigh as good a one as William Penberthy
of Marazion, whom the Lerd grant I meet in bliss!
And now, then, my masters, shall we inshore again,
and burn La Guayra ?â€
“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!â€
And he looked round sadly enough; while no one
needed that he should finish his sentence, or explain
his “but.â€
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 weari-
ness 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 surgebdn’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
120 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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.â€
“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,â€
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 !â€
“T wish you'd come forward and speak to them,
sir,†said Yeo, who had overheard the last words, “ or
we shall get nought done.â€
Amyas went forward instantly.
“Now then, my brave lads, what’s the matter here,
that you are all sitting on your tails like monkeys?â€
“Uch?†grunts one. “Don’t you think our day’s
work has been long enough yet, Captain ?â€
“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.â€
“Best sit here, and sink quietly. There’s no get-
ting home again, that’s plain.â€
“Why were we brought out here to be killed?â€
“For shame, men!†cries Yeo; “you're no better
than a set of stiffnecked Hebrew Jews, murmuring
against Moses the very minute after the Lord has
delivered you from the Egyptians.â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS., 121
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 to-
gether by the ears three mighty princes, Her Majesty
and the kings of Spain and Portugal,†he found his
whole voyage ready to come to nought, “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 !â€
And now Amyas’s conscience smote him (and his
122 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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!â€
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 birdnesting 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 ?â€
“ 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 gentle-
‘man. 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
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 123
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——?â€
His voice trembled and stopped there, but he re-
covered 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
ahand! Pelican’s men, stand by your captain! Did
we sail round the world for nothing 2â€
This last appeal struck home, and up leaped half-
a-dozen of the old Pelicans, and set to work at his sa
manfully to rig the jury-mast..
“Come along!†cried Cary, to the malcontents ; :
“we're raw longshore fellows, but we won’t be out-
done 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?â€
shouted some saucy hand from behind.
“Where you daren’t follow us alone by yourself,
so you had better keep us company,†replied Yeo.
“Tl 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 thereto find a harbour, and careen the
ship.â€
124 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
There was a start and a murmur.
“Tnshore? Into the Spaniards’ mouths ?â€
“All in the Inquisition in a week’s time.â€
“Better stay here, and be drowned.â€
“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.â€
Amyas pressed Cary’s hand, and then—
“And here’s my broadside next, men. Tl go
nowhere, and do nothing without the advice of Salva-
tion 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?â€
There was a grunt of approbation from the Peli-
cans ; 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?â€
Silence.
“Can we get home with a leak in our bottom 2â€
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?â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 125
Silence still.
“Come along now! Here’s the wind again round
with the sun, and up to the north-west. In with her!â€
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 Car-
racca mountains, range on range, up to the Silla and
the Neguater; while, right a-head of them to the
south, the shore sank suddenly into a low line of man-
grove-wood, backed by primeeval 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 man-
groves, Yeo,†said Amyas ; “I doubt whether we shall
do aught now, unless we find a river’s mouth.â€
“Tf 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,
126 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS
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.â€
“ 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 sea-
ward ; 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? Threedays. 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 mourn-
ful answer—“ Never, never, never !â€
AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS. 127
How should he face his mother ?
“Never, never, never!†wailed the bird again;
and Amyas smiled bitterly, and said “Never!†like-
wise.
The night mist began to steam and wreath upon
the foul beer-coloured 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 grave-yard 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 dole-
ful 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 iso-
lated 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-coloured
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
128 SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS, ETC.
all was again silent as a grave. The loathly alli-
gators, lounging in the slime, lifted their horny eye-
lids 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 be-
hind him, with Satan standing at the helm, he would
have scarcely been surprised. What fitter craft could
haunt that Stygian flood 3
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,
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.â€
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 excite-
ment of work is present : but too apt to fail the hero,
and to let him sink into the pit which he has so often
overleapt, 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 wit’s 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 con-
sult. The doctor talked mere science, or nonscience,
about humours, complexions, and animal spirits.
Jack Brimblecombe, mere pulpit, about its being the
visitation of God. Cary, mere despair, though he
VOL. IL K W. i.
130 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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.â€
Whereon, Amyas clutched his locks, according to
custom; and at last broke forth—
“Doctor! a fig for your humours and complexions!
Can you cure a man’s humours, or change his com-
plexion? 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,
Tl 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?â€
- 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,
AT HIGUEROTE. 131
while you on board were above it. And those that
were taken on board this morning, every one of them,
slept on the maindeck, 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.â€
“But the fog was up to our round-tops at sunrise
this morning,†said Cary.
“T 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.â€
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 dis-
covered 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.â€
“Let us go up those few hundred feet, then.â€
Every man looked at Amyas, and then at his
neighbour.
“Gentlemen, ‘Look the devil straight in the face,
if you would hit him in the right place.’ We cannot
Il. K2
132 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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.â€
“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?â€
“And when we are recruited, march over the
mountains, and surprise St. Yago de Leon.â€
Cary swore a great oath, “Amyas! you are a
daring fellow !â€
“Not a bit. It’s the plain path of prudence.â€
“So it is, sir,†said old Yeo, “and I follow you in it.â€
“And so do I,†squeaked Jack Brimblecombe.
“Nay, then, Jack, thou shalt not outrun me. So
I say yes, too,†quoth Cary.
“Mr. Drew 2â€
“At your service, sir, to live or die. I know
nought about stockading ; but Sir Francis would have
given the same council, I verily believe, if he had
been in your place.â€
“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.â€
The Pelicans, and the liberated galley-slaves, jomed
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.
AT HIGUEROTE. 133
“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.â€
“T suppose you meant to take us there ?â€
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, Ill blow up the ship and
every soul on board, and save you the pain of rotting
here by inches,â€
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 pro-
visions 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 moun-
II, K3
134 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
tain, 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 in-
estimable value. He, as pioneer, had found the little
brook up which they forced their way; he had en-
couraged 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 jeered 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 hope-
ful 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—
“Cortes burnt his ships when he landed. Why
should not we?â€
Yeo leapt upright ; and then sat down again, and
whispered.
“Do you say that, Captain? ’Tis from above
Chap. xxi. p. 134.
agelers.
- bullied and jeered on the str
Cary...
AT HIGUEROTE, 135
then, that’s certain; for it’s been hanging on my
mind too all day.â€
“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.
136 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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 Brimble-
combe, 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
IT 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 im-
possible 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.
“Tet us try St. Yago, then; sack it, come down
on La Guayra in the rear, take a ship there, and so
get home.â€
“Nay, Will If they have strengthened them-
selves against us at La Guayra, where they had little
AT HIGUEROTE, 137
to lose, surely they have done so at St, Yago,
where they have much. I hear the town is large,
though new ; and besides, how can we get over these
mountains without a guide ?â€
“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.â€
“What if I had a still more daring one? Did you
ever hear of the golden city of Manoa?â€
Yeo laughed a grim but joyful laugh. “TI have,
sir; and so have the old hands from the Pelican and
the Jesus of Lubec, I doubt not.â€
“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 rumours
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
Cortes, eh ?â€
“We shall never need to play Cortes (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.â€
So the conversation dropped for the time, but none
of them forgot it.
In that mountain-nook the party spent some ten
138 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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 racoons, monkeys, and other
small animals, which Yeo and the veterans of
Hawkins’ 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 pro-
visions, were housed roomily, rose the enormous trunk
full forty feet in girth, towering like some tall light-
house, smooth for a hundred feet, then crowned with
boughs, each of which was a stately tree, whose top-
most 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.
AT HIGUEROTE. 139
Once in the tree, you were within a new world, sus-
pended 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 colour 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 for ever, 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
140 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
white sheet of foam-flecked blue; and yet no sail
appeared ; and the men, as their fear of fever sub-
sided, 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
recognised 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 awhile, Amyas saw two
boats pull in from her, and vanish behind the man-
groves.
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 clus-
tered 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,
AT HIGUEROTE. 141
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 head-piece 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 !â€
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 authori-
tative voice behind, and presently there emerged to
the front, sword in hand, a figure at which Amyas and
Cary both started.
“Ts it heâ€
142 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
“Surely I know those legs among a thousand,
though they are in armour.â€
“It is my turn for him, now, Cary, remember!
Silence, silence, men !†;
The Spaniards seemed to feel that they were lead-
ing 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.â€
At last the Spaniards get up the steep slope to
within forty yards of the stockade, and pause, sus-
pecting 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. J would have
sent in a challenge to you at La Guayra, but you
were away ; I challenge you now to single combat.â€
“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.â€
“The devil take you and the King of Spain to-
gether!†shouts Amyas, laughing loudly. “This
AT HIGUEROTE, 143
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
Carraccas. Fire, men! and God defend the right !â€
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 re-
coiled 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
abatis, 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
144 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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 2â€
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,
AT HIGUEROTE. 145
and boarded her in hope of plunder, had been sur-
prised therein by the Spaniards, and forced by threats
to go with them asa 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
VOL, IL L Ww. H
146 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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
honour and wealth, and everlasting fame, beyond that
of Cortes. 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 nought ; 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 nought that
you ought not. And we'll follow you, sir, all alone
AT HIGUEROTE. 147
to ourselves; and let those that know you worse
follow after when they’re come to their right mind.â€
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 !â€
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 premisses, after
the conclusion has been found for us. We know,
now, that he was mistaken: but we have not dis-
covered: 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,
Cortes was laughed at: but he found Mexico. Piz-
arro: 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.
148 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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 agricul-
tural civilisation superior, in many things, to any
nation of Europe. Was it not most rational to sup-
pose that in the remaining three-quarters similar
empires existed? If a second Mexico had been dis-
covered 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 Cortes, again, were led on to their desperate
enterprises by the sight of small quantities of gold
among savages, who told them of a civilised 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 Schom-
burgk’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
AT HIGUEROTE. 149
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 gratiiitous
impertinence to deny. And what if some stories con-
nected 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 neigh-
bouring 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—
“Tet 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,
IL. L2
150 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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 !â€
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 com-
plaints to a council of war; to use no profane oaths,
but serve God daily with prayer; to take by vio-
lence 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 euide.
“Tt is a great oath, and a hard one,†said Brimble-
combe ; “but God will give us strength to keep it.â€
And they knelt all. together and received the Holy
Communion, and then rose to pack provisions and am-
munition, 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 after-
wards —“ with mariners and soldiers clothed im silk,
CEnBreek yy cz
They knelt all together and received the Holy Communion, —
Chap. xxi. p. 150.
AT HIGUEROTE. 151
with sails of damask, and topsails of cloth of gold,
and the richest prize which ever was brought at one
time unto English shores.â€
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.â€
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,
II. L8
“152 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION
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.â€
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 %â€
“ Ay, ay, sir, and to unload the ordnance too. No
use in making a noise to tell the Spaniards our where-
abouts.â€
Yes; that glare rises from the good ship Rose.
Amyas, like Cortes of old, has burnt his ship, and
retreat is now impossible. Forward into the unknown
AT HIGUEROTE. 153
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. Yago. 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 south-
ward 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.
Yago until night-fall; 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
154 HOW THEY TOOK THE COMMUNION, ETC.
afraid of stumbling on the heretic desperadoes, and he
returns by land to St. Yago; and when he arrives
there, has news from home which gives him other
things to think of than following those mad. English-
men, 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 for ever.â€
“Tutheran 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 !â€
Will they do so, Don Guzman? Or wilt thou and
Amyas meet again upon a mightier battle-field, to learn
a lesson which neither of you yet has learned ?
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 them-
selves 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 Carthagena. 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 civilised 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.
156 THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES.
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.â€
“JT fear so too, sir. Never did I behold a more
obdurate heretic. He did not scruple to scoff openly
at their holinesses.â€
“Ah!†said Eustace; “great is the pravity of the
human heart, and the power of Satan! Let us go for
the present.â€
“Where is she 2â€
“The elder sorceress, or the younger ?â€
“The younger—the ae
“The Sefiora 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
1?
collect himself enough to gasp out an “ Amen
THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES. 157
“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, Sefior.â€
Eustace knows well enough that the fellow is prob-
ably 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 ring-
ing, 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 villany somewhat in the eyes of the mob, so
often brought against their victims. And then Eus-
tace’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 ?â€
“You deny it then, Sefiora? 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 u
A wail which rings through Eustace’s ears, and
158 THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES.
brain, and heart! He would have torn at the door
to open it; but his companion forces him away.
Another, onl 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 fol-
lowed 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 !â€
“It may, indeed; for she is delicate, and cannot
endure much. You ought to know as well as I, Seiior,
the merciful disposition of the Holy Office,â€
“T 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 char-
acter of the elder sorceress. You yourself, you must
remember, Sefior, told us that she had been a notorious
witch in England, before the Sefiora brought her hither
as her attendant.â€
THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES. 159
“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 !â€
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 In-
quisitors, 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 Cartha-
gena 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 soulsâ€
(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 villanous
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
160 THE INQUISITION IN THE INDIES.
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 responsi-
bility (as it fancies), to God or man, but only to “The
Society.†In a word, Eustace, as he says of himself,
is “dead.†‘Twice dead, I fear. Let the dead bury
their dead. We have no more concern with Eustace
Leigh.
am A
ae ay
vat ma Ti
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 !â€
Trnnyson’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 thunder-cloud, and the giant cone of
Cotopaxi blackening in its sullen wrath, before the
VOL, If. M W. H.
162 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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.â€
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 enor-
mous 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 rumours 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,
Py mount, by stream, and sea.â€
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 at-
tempt 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
THE BANKS OF THE META: 163
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, can-
nibal 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 vapour-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 armour ; many of
them, too, are armed with the pocuna, or blowgun of
the Indians,—more deadly, because more silent, than
LL. M2
164 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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 righteous-
ness of the bearded heroes, who proclaimed them-
selves 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 be-
tween 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 3
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
THE BANKS OF THE META. 165
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.â€
“For me,†said Jack Brimblecombe, “‘ Heaven for-
give 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 stirrmg hand
or foot.â€
“Then I shall forbid you tobacco, Master Parson,â€
said Amyas; “for we must be up and away again to-
morrow. We have been idling here three mortal
days, and nothing done.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
II, M3
166 THE BANKS OF THE META.
“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?â€
“T 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 2â€
“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.â€
“But remember too,†said Jack, “how they told
us to beware of the Amazons.â€
“What, Jack, afraid of a parcel of women?â€
“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 with-
out necks, and with their eyes in their breasts, they
said. Now how could a Christian tackle such cus-
tomers as them 2â€
“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 neighbours.â€
“Well,†said Jack; ‘if I fight, let me fight honest
THE BANKS OF THE META, 167
flesh and blood, that’s all, and none of these outlandish
monsters. How do you know but that they are in-
vulnerable by Art-magic ?â€
“How do you know that they are? And as for
the Amazons,†said Cary, “woman’s woman, all the
world over. Tl 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.â€
“Gentlemen!†said Yeo, “where you go, I go;
and not only IJ, 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
Cortes and Pizarro, those imps of Satan, made their
golden conquests; with which if we could have
astounded the people of Manoa 7
“Having firstfound thesaid people,†laughed Amyas.
“Tt is like the old fable. Every craftsman thinks his
own trade the one pillar of the commonweal.â€
“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 2â€
168 THE BANKS OF THE META.
“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.â€
“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
T 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.’â€
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 mysteri-
ous knowledge and flashes of inspiration; and Brimble-
combe, 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 provi-
THE BANKS OF THE META. 169
dence 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 when-
ever we went Westward-ho, we have prospered; and do
prosper to this day.â€
“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, ‘ West-
ward-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.â€
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 ?â€
“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.â€
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 Fé de Bogota, of the
170 THE BANKS OF THE META,
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 pros-
pered 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 Oxen-
ham 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-be-
spangled 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. iver, trees,
flowers, birds, insects,—it was all a fairyland: but it
THE BANKS OF THE META. 171
was a colossal one; and yet the voyagers took little
note of it. It was now to them an everyday occur-
rence, 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. Com-
‘mon were forms and colours 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 bril-
liant green and rose-coloured 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.â€
Yes. The mind of man is not so “infinite,†in the
vulgar sense of that word, as people fancy ; and how-
ever greedy the appetite for wonder may be, while it
172 THE BANKS OF THE META,
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 civilisation)—can go on
long appreciating where Nature is insatiable, imperi-
ous, 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 whoop-
ing� 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 ab-
sence of any attempt at word-painting even of admira-
tion 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 Columbas—(but then all was new, and he was
THE BANKS OF THE META. 173
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 !â€
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 unpronounce-
able 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
174 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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
THE BANKS OF THE META. 175
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 fresh-water 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 flamingos 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 under-
tones, we detect a stifled, continuous hum of insects,
176 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
“There’s worse behind; don’t you see the spray
behind the palms ?â€
“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.â€
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
THE BANKS OF THE META. 177
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.â€
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
VOL. IL ; N W. HL
178 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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 mean-
while, 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, Sud-
denly, 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
THE BANKS OF THE META. 179
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 neighbouring rock, and met him face to face.
Tt 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 them-
selves—why not? And full of simple wonder, he
gazed upon that fairy vision, while she, unabashed in
IL. N2
180 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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 uncom-
fortable 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 2â€
“That you are a Spaniard and a robber, because
you have a beard.â€
“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,â€
80.
Chap. xxiii. p. 1
ely towards him.—
eld it fierc
Caught up a bow, and h
THE BANKS OF THE META. 181
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.â€
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
herclose. “Push your boat off, and let her pass. Boy,
tell her to go on; they will not come near her.â€
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.â€
182 THE BANKS OF THE META.
“Take care, then, where you wander hereabouts,
Sir John: lest you end as Acteon did, by turning
into a stag, and being eaten by a jaguar.â€
“ Acteeon was eaten by his own hounds, Mr. Cary,
so the parallel don’t hold. But surely she was a
very wonder of beauty !â€
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.â€
“Fillo!†shouted one in a few minutes, “here’s
fresh fish enough to feed us all round. I suppose
that young cat-amountain left it behind her in her
hurry. I wish she had left her golden chains and
ouches into the bargain.â€
“Well,†said another, “we'll take it as fair pay-
ment, for having made us drop down the current
again to let her ladyship pass.â€
“Leave that fish alone,†said Amyas; “it is none
of yours.â€
“Why, sir!†quoth the finder, in a tone of sulky
deprecation.
“Tf 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.â€
THE BANKS OF THE META. 183
The men were accustomed enough to strict and
stern justice in their dealings with the savages: but
they could not help looking slily 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 colours, 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 neighbours; 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,
II. N3
184 THE BANKS OF THE META.
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 peace-
able 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. arti-
culation, 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 inter-
preted by the Indian lad, seemed to signify, that the
valour 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 BANKS OF THE META. 185
“The Daughter of the Sun!†quoth Amyas ; “then
we have found the lost Incas after all.â€
“We have found something,†said Cary; “I only
hope. it may not be a mare’s nest, like many another
of our finding.â€
“Or an adder’s,†said Yeo. ‘We must beware of
treachery.â€
“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 fisty-cuffs from
mere dirty fear of each other.â€
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.
HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVII..
‘* 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.â€
TENNYSON.
HumBotpt 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
HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 187
it. His own good sense, it seems, coincided instinct-
ively 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 honourable
to poor humanity than the theory, that we all began as
some sort of two-handed apes. It is surely more hope-
ful 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 hap-
pened 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
188 TOW AMYAS WAS
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 Mer-
cury (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 caco-
phony 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 disap-
pointed, for none but Sir Urian would ever come to
listen to such a noise.â€
“And you mark, sirs,†said Yeo, “there’s some feast
or sacrifice toward. I’m not over-confident of them yet.â€
“Nonsense !†said Amyas, “we could kill every soul
of them in half an hour, and they know that as well
as me.â€
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.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 189
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.â€
“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.â€
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 2â€
“Te wants to know whether you have seen Amali-
vaca, on the other shore of the great water 1â€
Amyas was accustomed to this inquiry after the
mythic civiliser 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.
190 HOW AMYAS WAS
To which the Piache replied, that she must be one
of Amalivaca’s seven daughters, some of whom he took
back with him, while he 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
awhile 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 humour.
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.â€
The lad asked the old Cacique, who had accom-
panied 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 gesticula-
tions, and then to violent convulsions, foaming at the
mouth, and rolling of the eye-balls, till he suddenly
sank exhausted, and lay for dead.
“As good as a stage play.â€
oS
Consulting the Daughter of the Sun.—Chap. xxiv. p. 190.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 191
“The Devil has played his part,†says Jack ; “and
now by the rules of all plays Vice should come on.â€
“ And a very fair Vice it will be, I suspect; a right
sweet Iniquity, my Jack! Listen.â€
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.â€
The lad, grinning, informed Amyas, that the
Piache signified their acceptance as friends by the
Daughter of the Sun; that her friends were theirs,
192 HOW AMYAS WAS
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. f
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 ser-
vice ; 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 be-
neath the trees, and feasted merrily, while the drums
and trumpets made hideous music, and lithe young
girls and lads danced uncouth dances, which so scan-
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 193
dalised both Brimblecombe and Yeo, that they per-
suaded 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 whis-
pered Amyas away.
“The sweet Iniquity is mimicking us, lad.â€
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
VOL, II. 0 Ww. H
194 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 look-
ing 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 in-
timated 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.â€
“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
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 195
him, he told them, ina 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 them-
selves, 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 honours, by command of the con-
juror of the tribe, that so her forefather the Sun
might be propitious to them, and the Incas might
show favour 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 fétish-worship ; for she
196 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 de-
spised 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 he 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 king-
dom 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
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 197
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 de-
stroyed 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
198 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 awhile ;
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 neighbouring forest, with a train of chosen
nymphs, whom she had persuaded to follow her ex-
ample 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 descend-
ant 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,
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 199
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 fur-
nish 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,â€
and she waved her pretty hands up and down; “he is
the useful one to have for a friend!†Which senti-
ment the Piache much approved, as became his occu-
pation ; 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 keep-
ing 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.
200 HOW AMYAS WAS
This last, the Indians, attracted by the singing, at-
tended 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 iar 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, pro-
posed that the Piache should be thrown to the alliga-
tors, 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 neighbouring
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 fast-
ings, 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 neighbouring 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 fertilising powers.
So the Piache announced one day in public, that
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 201
in consequence of the impiety of the Omaguas, he
should retire to a neighbouring 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 through-
out 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.
“Tt is God’s quarrel, sirs all,†said Jack. Brimble-
combe ; “let Him defend the right.â€
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.
202 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 admira-
tion 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 ama 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!â€!
This terrible counter-threat, in spite of the slight
bathos involved, had its effect; for it appealed to
1 Two-toed sloths,
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL, 203
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 mosquitos 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
204 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 eaves-dropping, however un-
intentional; 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 came 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 re-
turned 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 prac-
tised what he preached ; and now his pride was sorely
hurt.
Moreover, he dreaded offence to the Indians them-
selves: 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 honour to the tribe that
they had found favour 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
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 205
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 extermina-
tion, 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
206 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 thie 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 civilised 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
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 207
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.â€
Somewhat apart crouched their two dusky brides,
crowned with fragrant flowers, but working busily,
like true women, for the lords whom they delighted to
honour. 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. be-
tokened only by the rustle far aloft, and by the mellow
shade in which it bathed the whole delicious scene.
Amyas stood silent for a while, 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 glori-
ous 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
for ever 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.
208 HOW AMYAS WAS
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!â€
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 con-
templation.
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 2â€
“TI 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 !â€
“‘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.â€
“Free to become like the beasts that perish? You
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 209
are the Queen’s servants still, and in her name I
charge you re
“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 T’ll repay you with a
bit of sound advice. Give up your gold-hunting, and
toiling and moiling after honour 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.â€
“You are drunk, sirrah! William Parracombe!
Will you speak to me, or shall I heave you into the
stream to sober you 2â€
“Who calls William Parracombe?†answered a
sleepy voice.
“T, fool !—your captain.â€
“Tam not William Parracombe. He is dead long
ago of hunger, and labour, 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——â€
“Awake, then, thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light! A chris-
tened Englishman, and living thus the life of a beast?â€
“Christ shall give thee light?†answered the same
VOL. IL P Ww. n.
210 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 labour and sorrow, and made
them wade knee-deep in blood—I’m tired of blood,
and tired of gold. Tl 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 bea 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 neigh-
bour’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.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 211
It’s long since I’ve had play-hours ; and now Ill be a
little child once more, with the flowers, and the sing-
ing 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 2â€
“ And will you live here, shut out from all Chris-
tian ordinances %â€
“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 Brimble-
combe, 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.â€
His voice died away to a murmur, and his head
sank on his breast.
Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the nar-
cotic was all but miraculous in his eyes. The sustained
212 HOW AMYAS WAS
eloquence, the novel richness of diction in one seem-
ingly 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 some-
thing, 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 re-
proaches, 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.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 213
Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage.
He and his might christianise, civilise, teach equal law,
mercy in war, chivalry to women ; found a community
which might be hereafter as strong a barrier against
the ericroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself
would have been. Who knew the wealth of the sur-
rounding forests? Even if there were no gold, there
were boundless vegetable treasures. What might he
not export down the rivers? This might be the nu-
cleus 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
labour 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 watch-
ing him earnestly. Heavens! was she waiting for his
decision? Both dtopped 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
aE P2
214 HOW AMYAS WAS
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 : béfore
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, wak-
ened 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 mad-
ness, 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.â€
“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!â€
They bore away the lithe corpse into the forest, and
See
5
High in air gleamed Amyas’s blade.—Chap. xxiv. p. 214.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 215
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.â€
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 counsel 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,
IL, P3
216 HOW? AMYAS WAS
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.â€
To which Amyas most devoutly said, “Amen!â€
Tf 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 voleanoes.. Who had
not heard how one of Cortes’ 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 cloth-
yard arrows had done Englishmen’s work many a
time already, and they could do it again, not to men-
tion those same blow-guns and their arrows of curare
poison, which, though they might be useless against
Spaniards’ armour, were far more valuable than mus-
kets for procuring food, from the simple fact of their
silence.
TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL. 217
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 be-
tween 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.â€
“ And what will you do with them?†asked Amyas,
who recollected poor John Oxenham’s hapless compact
made in like case.
“Hat 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.â€
Ayacanora, who had been preaching war like a
very Boadicea, was much vexed.
“Do you too want to dine off roast Spaniards?â€
asked Amyas.
She shook her head, and denied the imputation
with much disgust.
Amyas was relieved ; he had shrunk from joining
218 HOW AMYAS WAS TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL.
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 staunchly. j
“Ts it fair?†heasked. “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.â€
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.
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 pelnonence, more than for God offended.â€
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 for ever to the
green ocean of the eastern plains, they have crossed
the Cordillera; they have taken a longing glance at
the city of Santa Fé, 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 dis-
covered that a gold-train is going down from Santa Fé
toward the Magdalena; and they are waiting for it
beside the miserable rit which serves for a road, en-
camped 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 under-growth ;
220 HOW THEY TOOK
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 vapour-bath
of rank hot steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous
colours 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 Cundina-
marca was a civilised 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
lama-flocks of that strange empire. In the mad
search for gold, every art of civilisation 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 honour 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
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 221
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 medi-
tating 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!â€
“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 ?â€
“Men!†said Amyas, in a low voice, “I trust you
all not to shoot tillI do. Then give them one arrow,
out swords, and at them! Pass the word along.â€
Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at
their coming.
First, about twenty soldiers, only one-half of whom
2229 HOW THEY TOOK
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 armour and their arquebuses into the hands
of attendant slaves, who were each pricked on at will
by the pikes of the soldier behind them.
“The men are mad to let their ordnance out of
their hands.â€
“Oh, sir, an Indian will pray to an arquebus not
to shoot him ; be sure their artillery is safe enough,â€
said Yeo.
“Look at the proud villains,†whispered another,
“to make dumb beasts of human creatures like that !â€
“Ten shot,†counted the business-like Amyas, “and
ten pikes ; Will can tackle them up above.â€
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 ob-
jects 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 fetiche-ridden idolaters, and
the most abominable swearers of all Europeans.
“The blasphemous dog!†said Yeo, fumbling at his
bowstring, 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
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 223
common even then in those remoter districts, where
the humane edicts were disregarded, which the prayers
of Dominican friars (to their everlasting honour 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
Zinghis-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 im-
partial 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 super-
added 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
224 HOW THEY TOOK
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 brutalised 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 ?â€
“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!â€
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
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 225
less than of the English arrows which were itching to
be away and through his ribs. The ambush was com-
plete ; 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—tfor 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, Sefiors!
there is a tree across the path !â€
“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 Compostela,
and various other personages ; while the line of trem-
bling 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
VOL, I, Q W. HL
226 HOW THEY TOOK
see what had happened. Of course, he came across
the old man.
“Sin peccado concebida! Grandfather of Beelze-
bub, is this a place to lie worshipping your fiends?â€
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, Sefior Capitan,†said he, with a shrug.
“Used up. He has been failing these three months!â€
“What does the intendant mean, by sending me
out with worn-out cattle like these? Forward there!â€
shouted he. ‘Clear away the tree, Sefiors, and I'll
soon clear the chain. Hold it up, Pedrillo!â€
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
ag POIee or §
WU G ok†BS)
ad
cy M
PTE Ge a
&
Clasped him in her arms, and leaped with him from the narrow ledge
into the abyss.—Chap. xxv. p. 227.
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 227
regale themselves at meals with the odour 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 3 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 crash-
ing 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 de-
livered 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
228 HOW THEY TOOK
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!â€
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 des-
perate 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 armour, 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.â€
The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer
from forest training, ran two feet for the Spaniards’
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.
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 229
“Tet 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!â€
They found armourers’ 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.â€
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
230 HOW THEY TOOK
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.â€
“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.â€
“You shall find none in us!†cried several men.
“We know your worship. We can trust our general.â€
“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 labour it
may. How many lie in the road?â€
“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?â€
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 231
“T, 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.†oh /
“Why, who is that comes up the road 2â€
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.
“T 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 ?â€
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.
232 HOW THEY TOOK
After half-an-hour’s hard work,the weapons, clothes,
and armour 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 hand-
ling powder and ball.
“We can face the world now, sir! Why not go
back and try Santa Fé, after all?â€
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 fear-
ful triumph. Lines of vultures were already stream-
ing 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.
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 233
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?â€
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 !â€
There it was verily, that mysterious bone of con-
tention; a handsome earthen tube some two feet long,
neatly glazed, and painted with quaint grecques and
figures of animals; a relic evidently of some civilisa-
tion 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.â€
234 HOW THEY TOOK
“Let be,†said Amyas. ‘What is the meaning of
this, Ayacanora? And why have you followed us?â€
She told along 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, for
sooth, 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, vow-
ing that he would carry off the trumpet to the neigh-
bouring 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!
“T hope you have not killed him?†said Amyas.
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 235
“T did beat him a little ; but I thought you would
not let me kill him.â€
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.â€
“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 1â€
On which she fell to the rear, and followed them
steadfastly, speaking to no one, but evidently deter-
mined to follow them to the world’s end.
They soon left the high road ; 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 mar-
gin of a river, ab 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 with-
out 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 began,
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
236 HOW THEY TOOK
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 2
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 like-
ness 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
laymg 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 Sefiors!
Do my old eyes deceive me, and is it one of those evil
visions of the past which haunt my dreams by night:
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 237
or has the accursed thirst of gold, the ruin of my race,
penetrated even into this my solitude? Oh, Seiiors,
Sefiors, 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, Sefiors, 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 ?â€
“We have preserved, and not enslaved these
Indians, ancient Sefior,†said Amyas proudly; “and
to-morrow will see them as free as the birds over our
heads.â€
“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 !â€
““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 neighbours,
I fear, for a day or two; but I can promise you, that
238 HOW THEY TOOK
your garden shall be respected, on condition that you
do not inform any human soul of our being here.â€
“God forbid, Sefior, 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!â€
And he was about to withdraw, when, recollecting
himself, he turned suddenly to Amyas again,—
“Pardon me, Sefior, 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.â€
“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.â€
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 gét fruit for their new pets.
A camp was soon formed; and that evening the
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 239
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 sur-
mounted 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, Sefiors, at my
presence in such a spot, and at my asking you to be-
come my guests even for one evening, while I have no
better hospitality to offer you.â€
“Tt is superfluous, Sefior, to offer us food in your
own habitation when you have already put all that
you possess at our command.â€
“True, Sefiors : 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 con-
fess 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
240 HOW THEY TOOK
then sink into souls which can at least sympathise,
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 con-
cern his guests, and not himself.â€
The three young men, equally surprised and in-
terested 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. THighty 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 ?â€
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 241
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, Sefiors, which are more in number than
the hairs of my head, and a burden too great to bear.
Miserere Domine !â€
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 villany, did I, instead of con-
fessing 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?â€
“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.â€
“Sefior, 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 righteous-
ness,â€
VOL. II. R w. u
242 HOW THEY TOOK
John Brimblecombe shook his head at this doctrine,
but did not speak.
“So you know his grandson? I trust he is a noble
cavalier ?â€
Amyas was silent ; the old gentleman saw that he
had touched some sore point, and continued,—
“And why, again, Sefiors, 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 Imad? If I was, how then was J all that while
as prudent as J am this day? But J am not here to
argue, Sefiors, 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 tor-
tured 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. Sefiors,
I will not pollute your chaste ears with what was done.
But, Sefiors, I had a brother.â€
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,
Sefiors, more beautiful than day: and (I blush to tell
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 243
it) the two brothers of whom I spoke quarrelled for
the possession of her. They struck each other,
Sefiors! Who struck firss 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, Sefiors,
before you flee from my presence as from that of a
monster !—stabbed her to the heart. And as she
died—one moment more, Sefiors, 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 villany.â€
The old man paused.
“God forgive you, Sefior!†said Jack Brimblecombe,
softly.
“You do not then turn from me? Do not curse
me? Then I will try you further still, Sefiors. 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,
Sefiors 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
944 HOW THEY TOOK
pride, Sefiors, and self-will, I would fill up the cup of
my iniquity ; and IJ filled it.
“You know, doubtless, Sefiors, 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, Sefiors, like a dog, or
rather, like an old lion.â€
“He deserved his doom,†said Amyas.
“Tet God judge him, Sefior, not we; and least of
all of us I, who drew the first blood, and perhaps the
last, that day. JI, Sefiors, 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 honour, 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 nought 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 GOLD-TRAIN. 245
the heart. We charged with our lances, man against
man, horse against horse. All fights I ever fought â€
(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, oh 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, Sefiors; 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, Sefiors, struck him
full in the vizor. ‘We both went to the ground to-
gether, and the battle galloped over us.
“T 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
246 HOW THEY TOOK
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, Sefiors, 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, Sefiors, 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!
“TI tore off my armour 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 !â€
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
LZ
FP
Ee
zy
=
Sa
ZF
See
“Did you ever guess, most noble cavaliers, what Cain’s curse might
be like ?â€.—Chap. xxv. p. 246.
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 247
nor less than an English priest; and I suppose you
will not be willing to listen to a heretic.â€
“T have seen Catholics, Sefior, 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 !â€
“T 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.â€
“ Amen!. Amen!†said the old man, looking lov-
ingly at his little crucifix. “I hope and pray—His
name is love. I knowitnow; who better? But, sir,
even if He have forgiven me, how can I forgive myself 4
In honour, 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 in-
stead 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.â€
248 HOW THEY TOOK
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 nie
when I tell you, as a priest, that God accepts your
penitence.â€
“My heart tells me so already, at moments. But
how know I that it does not lie?â€
“Sefior,†said Jack, “the best way to punish one-
self 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.â€
The old man held down his head.
“Right the Indians? Alas! what is done, is done !â€
“Not altogether, Sefior,†said Amyas, “as long as
an Indian remains alive in New Granada.â€
“Seftor, shall I. confess my weakness? A voice
within me has bid me a hundred times go forth, and
labour 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.â€
“Sefior,†said Amyas, “these are but the sick
fancies of a noble spirit, feeding on itself in solitude.
You have but to try to conquer.â€
“And look now,†said Jack, “if you dare not go
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 249
forth to help the Indians, see now how God has
brought the Indians to your own door. Oh, excellent
sir x
“Call me not excellent,†said the old man, smiting
his breast.
“‘T 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.â€
“You do not speak like a Lutheran.’
“T 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.â€
“But I am no priest.â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
250 HOW THEY TOOK
“Ah, Sefiors!†said the hermit as they came up,
“you see that I have begun already to act: upon your
advice.â€
“And you have begun at the right end,†quoth
Amyas; “if you win the children, you win the
mothers.â€
“And if you win the mothers,†quoth Will, “the
poor fathers must needs obey their wives, and follow
in the wake.â€
The old man only sighed. ‘The prattle of these
little ones softens my hard heart, Sefiors, 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 e
“God has taken care of these little ones. Trust
that He has taken care of yours.â€
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 en-
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 251
danger 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 like-
wise ; so that what with the game and the fish of the
river, which seemed inexhaustible, and the fruit of the
neighbouring 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, think-
ing 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
oO
/
252 HOW THEY TOOK
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 open-
ing 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!†was Amyas’s first words; but his
next was, “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 Amyas spoke,—
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 253
“There’s no use in standing here idle, gentlemen.
Staring after her won’t bring her back. After all, ?m
glad she’s gone.â€
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 out-
sulk 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 pre-
pared for their fresh voyage. They determined to
travel as much as possible by night, for fear of dis-
covery, especially in the neighbourhood 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
254 HOW THEY TOOK
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 a Spanish sword
and an English axe: while in the midst the old hermit,
with tears in his eyes, prayed God’s blessing on them.
“T owe to you, noble cavaliers, new peace, new
labour, I may say, new life. May God be with you,
and teach you to use your gold and your swords bet-
ter than I used mine.â€
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
there not 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 gun-
wale. It was Ayacanora!
“Go back !†shouted Amyas. ‘Go back, girl!â€
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 255
She uttered the same wild cry with which she had
fled into the forest.
“J 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 acage of lions. There was a rush and a swirl
along the surface of the stream; and “Caiman! cai-
man !†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 be-
neath her body, and smashed up against the side of
the canoe, as the striker, overbalanced, fell headlong
overboard upon the monster’s back.
256 HOW THEY TOOK
“Who is it?â€
“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 wan-
derings, 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.â€
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 upper-
most, 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 !â€
And, true enough, there was the huge brute swim-
THE GOLD-TRAIN. 257
ming 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?â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
Amyas was silent awhile; while Ayacanora, who
was evidently utterly exhausted by the night’s ad-
venture, 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 along-
side. :
“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
VOL, IIL. S W. H.
258 HOW THEY TOOK THE GOLD-TRAIN.
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.
Tl hang you, as I am a Christian; and I. give you
free leave to hang me.â€
“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.â€
“T am not. jesting, Will.â€
“T 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.â€
“Amen!†said Brimblecombe. “Amen!†said
Yeo; and many an honest voice joined in that honest
compact, and kept it too, like men.
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.â€
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 Martha is rippling before the
land-breeze, one sheet of living flame. The mighty
forests are sparkling with myriad fire-flies. 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
IL. $2
260 HOW THEY TOOK
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 water-course 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
Carthagena, 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
Majesty’s Customs at Santa Martha, 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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 261
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, Sefiors,—ah, great
sufferers,†snufiléd 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 mosquitos. “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 arm °
shortened.—Look, Sefiors !â€â€”and he pointed majesti-
cally out of the window. “It looks gold! it smells of
gold, as I may say, by a poetical licence. Yea, the very
waves, as they ripple past us, sing of gold, gold, gold !â€
“It is a great privilege,†said the intendant, “to
have comfort so gracefully administered at once by a
churchman and a scholar.â€
“A poet too,†said Don Pedro. ‘You have no
notion what sweet sonnets a
“lush, Don Pedro—hush! If I, a mateless bird,
have spent an idle hour in teaching lovers how to sing,
why what of that? Iam a churchman, Sefiors: but
I am a man, and I can feel, Sefiors ; I can sympathise ;
I can palliate ; I can excuse. Who knows better than
J, how much human nature lurks in us fallen sons of
Adam? Tita!â€
“Um?†said the trembling girl, with a true Indian
grunt.
II. $3
262 HOW THEY TOOK
“Fill his Excellency the Intendant’s glass. Does
much more treasure come down, illustrious Sefior?
May the poor of Mary hope for afew more crumbs
from their Mistress’s table ?â€
“Not a pezo, Ifear. The big white cow up thereâ€
—and he pointed to the Horqueta—“ has been milked
dry for this year.â€
“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.â€
“Solomon’s birds? Explain your recondite allu-
sion, my lord.†.
“Enlighten us, your excellency ; enlighten us.â€
“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, Sefiors, once
on a time, the story goes, these hoopoes all had golden
crowns on their heads; and, Sefiors, 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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 263
to bear. So Solomon prayed ; and instead of golden
crowns, they all received crowns of feathers 3 and ever
since, Sefiors, they live as merrily as crickets in an
oven, and also have the honour of bearing the name
of His Most Catholic Majesty King Solomon. Tita!
fill the Sefior Commandant’s glass. Fray Gerundio,
what are you whispering about down there, sir?â€
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 !â€
“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.â€
‘What is that, Fray Gerundio?†asked the bishop
again.
“T merely remarked, that it were well for the
world if all mankind were to put up the same. prayer
as the hoopoes.â€
“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, Sefiors†(turning to the Dons, and speak-
ing 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 fore-
head knowingly, to signify that Fray Gerundio’s wits
were in an unsatisfactory state.
264 HOW THEY TOOK
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 reward 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.â€
“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 %â€
“And if we had anything to send,†says the sea-
THE GREAT GALLEON. 265
captain, “what have we to send it in? That fiend
incarnate, Drake——â€
“Ah!†said his holiness; “spare my ears! Don
Pedro, you will oblige my weakness by not mention-
ing 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. De-
ceived Eve, too, with one of those same apples—a
very evil name, Sefiors—a Tartarean name,—Tita !â€
oe Um! 1?
“Fill my glass.â€
“Nay,†cried the colonel, with a great oath, “this
English fellow is of another breed of serpent from
that, I warrant.â€
“Your reason, Sefior ; your reason ?â€
“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.â€
“Ah, ah!—_very good! But—we laugh, valiant
Sefiors, while the Church weeps. Alas for my sheep!â€
“And, alas for their sheepfold! It will be four
years before we can get Carthagena 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.â€
“Baptista Antonio, the surveyor, has sent home
by me a relation to the king, setting forth our de-
fenceless state. But to read a relation and to act on
266 HOW THEY TOOK
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 villanous 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
drank my health in my own private wine—wine that
I had from Xeres nine years ago, Sefiors—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 !â€
“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 2â€
“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 2â€
“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, Seiiors, had we not had warning
of the coming of these wretches from my dear friend
THE GREAT GALLEON. 267
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!â€
‘“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.â€
“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.â€
“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 ?â€
“Ah!†said the bishop, “it was by intuition dia-
bolic, 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.â€
“Well, your holiness,†said the colonel, “there
may have been devilry in it; how else would men
268 HOW THEY TOOK
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 %â€
“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-d-pié. 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 ?â€
“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 ord-
nance, 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, Sefior
Commandant, though Satan may have taught them
that trick, was it he that taught them to carry pikes
a foot longer than yours ?â€
“ Ah, well,†said the bishop, “sacked are we; and
Saint Domingo, as I hear, in worse case than we are ;
and Saint 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,
THE GREAT GALLEON, 269
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 labour one who is now old, Sefiors,
and weary with many toils—Tita! Fill our glasses.
I have saved somewhat—as you may have done,
Sefiors, from the general wreck; and for the flock,
when I am no more, illustrious Sefiors, 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. Sefiors, you will excuse age and infirmi-
ties. Fray Gerundio, go to bed !â€
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?â€
“Not a frail; nor gold either,†said the intendant.
“Ah, well! Better a dinner of herbs where love is,
than—Tita !â€
“My breviary—ah! Man’s gratitude is short-
lived, I had hoped. You have seen nothing of the
Sefiora Bovadilla ?â€
“No.â€
“Ah! she promised:—but no matter—a little
trifle as a keepsake—a gold cross, or an emerald ring,
270 HOW THEY TOOK
or what not—TI forget. And what have I to do
with worldly wealth!—ah! Tita! bring me the
casket.â€
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 Rome
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!â€
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 chal-
lenged 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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 271
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 %â€
Tita looked. She did not think it was a fish: but
she did not choose to say so; for it might have pro-
duced 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 Sefior 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.
“Ts he asleep?â€
_ “Yes: but the casket is under his head.â€
“Curse him! How shall we take it?â€
“T 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.â€
“What shall we do, in the name of all the fiends? ©
She sails to-morrow morning, and then all is lost.â€
272 HOW THEY TOOK
Tita showed her white teeth, and touched the
dagger which hung by the intendant’s side. .
“T dare not!†said the rascal with a shudder.
“T 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!â€
-The Sefior 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 dis-
covered !â€
“J will leap out of the window with the casket,
and swim ashore. They will never suspect you, and
they will fancy I am drowned.â€
“The sharks may seize you, Tita. You had better
give me the casket.â€
Tita smiled. ‘You would not like to lose that,
eh? though you care little about losmg me. And
yet you told me that you loved me!â€
“And I do love you, Tita! light of my eyes! life
of my heart! Iswear, by all the saints, I love you.
I will marry you, I swear I will—I will swear on the
crucifix, if you like !â€
“Swear, then, or I do not give you the casket,â€
said she, holding out the little crucifix round her
THE GREAT GALLEON, 273
neck, and devouring him with the wild eyes of
passionate unreasoning tropic love.
He swore, trembling, and deadly pale.
“Give me your dagger.â€
“No, not mine. It may be found. I shall be sus-
pected. What if my sheath were seen to be empty ?â€
“Your knife will do. His throat is soft enough.†°
And she glided stealthily as a cat toward the
hammock, while her cowardly companion stood shiver-
ing 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.
“T 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 !â€
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 handker-
VOL, II, T W.
274 HOW THEY TOOK
chief 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
armour 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 com-
mander sleeps, and I pardon you.â€
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 hatch-
way, 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.â€
THE GREAT GALLEON, O75
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.â€
“Fire! fire!†shouted Cary, forward—“Up the
main hatchway for your lives!â€
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. â€
“Spoken like a good falconer. Heaven grant that
this big woodcock may carry a good trail inside !â€
“Tl warrant her for that,†said Jack Brimblecombe.
“She floats so low.â€
“Much of your build, too, Jack. By the by, where
is the commander ?â€
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.
276 HOW THEY TOOK
“Hurt, Will?â€
“A pinch, old lad—Look out, or we are ‘allen
verloren’ after all, as the Flemings say.â€
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.â€
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 maindeck, 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 outaumber
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
armour. 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 GREAT GALLEON. OTT
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
bulk-head. There were cannon: but where was pow-
der or shot? The boats, encouraged by the clamour
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.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
- 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
278 HOW THEY TOOK
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, Sefior!†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 !â€
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 com-
mandant 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 !
THE GREAT GALLEON. 279
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, challeng-
ing all and every one to approach.
“Are you hurt?†panted she.
“A scratch, child—What do you do here? Go
back, go back.â€
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 him-
self 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 ?â€
“Tam 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, con-
sidering she saved my life; but what a brimstone it
is! Mary Ambree ina dark skin! Now then lads!
Get the Santa Fé gold up out of the canoes, and then
we will put her head to the north-east, and away for
280 HOW THEY TOOK
old England. Mr. Brimblecombe! don’t say that
Eastward-ho don’t bring luck this time.â€
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. How-
ever, Amyas contrived, when once the ship was leap-
ing 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 !â€
“Well, we know that already.â€
“Nay, but—look hither, and laid in ice, too, as I
live, the luxurious dogs! But I had to fight for it,
Thad. 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——â€
“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 ?â€
“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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 281
like a very cat-amountain. 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.â€
“Well done, Jack! lLet’s have the wine, never-
theless, and then down to set a guard on the cabin-
doors for fear of plundering.â€
“Better go down, and see that nothing is thrown
overboard by Spaniards. As for plundering, I will
settle that.â€
And Amyas walked forward among the men.
“Muster the men, boatswain, and count them.â€
“All here, sir, but the six poor fellows who are
laid forward.â€
“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?â€
“Tt 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.â€
282 HOW THEY TOOK
“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 labours. Let us thank Him, with
fervent hearts, as soon as the sun rises 3 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 be-
fore, as I believe, by any captain. So, now to prayers,
lads, and then to eat our breakfast.â€
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 Sefior
Adelantado Captain Englishman,†that breakfast was
ready in the state-cabin.
“You will do us the honour of accompanying
us as our guest, sir, or our host, if you prefer the
title,†said Amyas to the Commandant, who stood
by.
His eyes staring on vacancy, while the two priests stood as close against
the wall as they could squeeze themselves.—Chap. xxvi. p. 283,
THE GREAT GALLEON. 983
“Pardon, Sefior: but honour forbids me to eat
with one who has offered to me the indelible insult of
bonds.â€
“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.â€
“Jt is enough, Sefior,†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.â€
“JT am not in jesting humour, Will: my mind
sadly misgives me that we shall hear black news, and
have, perhaps, to do a black deed yet, on board here.
Seftor, I follow you.â€
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.â€
There was a marked emphasis on the last two
words, which made both monks wince.
“Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen. His
984 HOW THEY TOOK
lordship the bishop will do me the honour of sitting
next to me.â€
The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed
the savoury 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!
Sefior 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, to-morrow to thee !’â€
“T drink it, brave Sefior. Your courtesy shows
you the worthy countryman of General Drake, and
his brave lieutenant.â€
“Drake! Did you know hin, Sefior?†asked all
the Englishmen at once.
“Too well, too well †and he would have con-
tinued: but the bishop burst out—
“Ah, Sefior Commandant! that name again!
Have you no mercy? To sit between another pair
of , and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!â€
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, Sefior Lieu-
tenant Englishman! May I ask you to pass those
limes ?—Ah! what is turtle without lime ?1—Even as
THE GREAT GALLEON. 285
a fat old man without money! Nudus intravi, nudus
exeo—ah !â€
“But what of Drake 2â€
“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, Carthagena, San Domingo, St.
Augustine, and. I see you are too courteous, Sefiors,
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?â€
“ Art-magic, art-magic!†moaned the bishop.
“Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak
thus here,†said the Commandant, who was neverthe-
less much of the same opinion.
“Why, you said so yourself, last night, Sefior,
about the taking of Carthagena.â€
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 valour
had not sprung from mortal source.â€
“No more it did, Sefior,†said Jack Brimblecombe,
stoutly: “but from Him who taught our ‘hands to
war, and our fingers to fight.’â€
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, Sefior Captain, how came you hither, 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
286 HOW THEY TOOK
thought that all Drake’s squadron had left six months
ago.â€
“Our ship, Sefior, has lain this three years rotting
on the coast near Cape Codera.â€
“Ah! we heard of that bold adventure—but we
thought you all lost in the interior.â€
“You did? Can you tell me, then, where the
Sefior Governor of La Guayra may be now 2â€
“The Sefior Don Guzman de Soto,†said the Com-
mandant, 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 honour of knowing anything.â€
Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the
well-bred Spaniard would tell him nothing which con-
cerned another man’s wife ; and went on.
“What befell us after, I tell you frankly.â€
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 Sefior, I should say that the Divine protec-
tion has indeed
“Ah,†said one of the friars, “that you could be
brought, Sefiors, to render thanks for your miraculous
preservation to her to whom alone it is due, Mary,
the fount of mercies!â€
“We have done well enough without her as yet,â€
said Amyas, bluntly.
“The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to
punish the sins of the Jewish church; and He has
THE GREAT GALLEON. 287
raised up these men to punish ours!†said Fray
Gerundio. ;
“But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they,â€
growled the other to himself. Jack overheard him.
“T 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.â€
“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 ?â€
“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.â€
“T 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 2â€
“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
288 HOW THEY TOOK
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?â€
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!â€
and up jumped kind-hearted Jack, and brought in
the surgeon of the galleon.
“Ts this posible, Sefior?†asked the Commandant.
“Tt istrue. Door, there! Evans! Go and bring
in that rascal whom we left bound in his cabin!â€
Evans went, and the Commandant continued,—
“But the stern-gallery? How, in the name of al]
witches and miracles, came your valour thither ?â€
“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.â€
“Oh! my scoundrels of sentinels !â€
“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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 289
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 honour), 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.â€
The Commandant rose in his courtly Spanish way,—
“Your admirable story, Sefior, proves to me how
truly your nation, while it has yet, and I trust will
ever have, to dispute the palm of valour. 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 valour of the lion. Sefior, I
feel as proud of becoming your guest, as I should
have been proud, under a happier star, of becoming
your host.â€
“You are, like your nation, only too generous,
Sefior. But what noise is that outside? Cary, go
and see.â€
But ere Cary could reach the door, it was opened ;
and Evans presented himself with a terrified face.
“Here’s villany, sir! The Don’s murdered, and
cold; the Indian lass fled ; and as we searched the
VOL, II, U W. HL
290 HOW THEY TOOK
ship for her, we found an Englishwoman, as I’m a
sinful man !—and a shocking sight she is to see !â€
“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 bound-
less 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, re-
coiled with horror.
“Holy Virgin! what wretch is this on board my
ship? Bishop, is this the prisoner whom you sent on
board ?â€
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
THE GREAT GALLEON. 291
her away, gentlemen ; turn her eye away; she will
bewitch, fascinate â€â€”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 !â€
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?â€
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.â€
“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, burst-
ing into tears. ‘Whom should I trust? Not myself:
no, nor God;. for I have denied him! O Lord! O
Lord !â€
292 HOW THEY TOOK
Amyas stood silent with fear and horror; some in-
stinct told him, that he was on the point of hear-
ing 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 shan’t touch you.â€
“Devon?†she said, doubtingly ; “Devon! Whence,
then 2â€
“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.â€
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 youre 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?â€
“Who on earth are you?â€
“Lucy Passmore, the white witch to Welcombe.
Don’t you mind Lucy Passmore, as charmed your
warts for you when you was a boy ?â€
“Lucy Passmore!†almost shrieked all three friends.
“She that went off with i
“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.
THE GREAT GALLEON. 293
“ Where is Dofia de—Rose Salterne ?†shouted Will
and Jack.
“Where is my brother Frank?†shouted Amyas.
“Dead, dead, dead !â€
“T knew it,†said Amyas, sitting down again calmly.
“How did she die?â€
“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?â€
A gleam of hope flashed across Amyas—she had not
answered his question.
“T am Amyas Leigh of Burrough, Do you
know aught of my brother Frank, who was lost at
La Guayra?â€
“Mr. Amyas! Heaven forgive me, that I did not
know the bigness of you. Your brother, sir, died like
a gentleman as he was.â€
“But how?†gasped Amyas.
“ Burned with her, sir!â€
“Ts this true, sir?†said Amyas, turning to the
bishop, with a very quiet voice.
“J, 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
1?
294 HOW THEY TOOK
could not interfere with that—any more than I can
with the Holy Office. Ido 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 to-
wards the door.
“Hang you!†said Amyas. “If I had been a
Spaniard and a priest like yourself, I should have
burnt you alive.â€
“Hang me?†shrieked the wretched old Balsam;
and burst into abject howls for mercy.
“Take the dark monk, Yeo, and hang him too.
Lucy Passmore, do you know that fellow also ?â€
“No, sir,†said Lucy.
“Tiucky 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 |â€
But the bishop shrieked on.
“Oh! not yet. An hour, only an hour! I am
not fit to die.â€
“That is no concern of mine,†said Amyas. “I
only know that you are not fit to live.â€
“Let us at least make our peace with God,†said
the dark monk.
“Wound! if your saints can really smuggle you
up the back-stairs to heaven, they will do it without
five minutes’ more coaxing and flattering.â€
THE GREAT GALLEON. 295
Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike
stopped their ears at the blasphemy.
“Oh Fray Gerundio !†screamed the bishop, “pray
forme. I have treated you like a beast. Oh, Fray,
Fray !â€
“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
amI? 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, con-
fess that, my lord! confess it ere it be too late !â€
“T will confess all about the Indians, and the gold,
and Tita too, Fray; peccavi, peccavi—only five
minutes, Sefiors, five little minutes’ grace, while I con-
fess to the good Fray !â€â€”and he grovelled on the deck.
“TJ will have no such mummery where I command,â€
said Amyas, sternly. “I will be no ‘accomplice in
cheating Satan of his due.â€
“Tf 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?â€
“Tt is, Sefior; it is my lord,†said Gerundio: but
the bishop only clasped his hands over his head.
“Then Iam 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 !â€
296 HOW THEY TOOK
“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, how-
ever unworthy, a martyr, in charity with all men, and
in the communion of the Holy Catholic Church 3 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 sce 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!â€
“Amen!†said Salvation Yeo. . “I need not to swear
that oath ; for I have sworn it long ago, and kept it.
THE GREAT GALLEON. 297
Will your honour have us kill the rest of the
idolaters ?â€
“God forbid!†said Cary. “You would not do
that, Amyas?â€
“No; we will spare them. God has shown usa
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.â€
“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, Sefior—is it possible? Is his holiness dead 2â€
“He is hanged and dead, Sefior. 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, Sefior;
your conscience tells you that I am just.â€
“Sefior,†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.â€
“Walk out, then, into the gallery with me.â€
“To tell you the truth, Sefior—I trust in Heaven
no one overhears.—You are just. This Inquisition is
298 HOW THEY TOOK
the curse of us, the weight which is crushing out the
very life of Spain. No man dares speak. No man
dares trust his neighbour, 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 un-
natural 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, Sefior—Heaven alone knows whether she
is alive or dead !—It was nine years since; and we
have never heard ; and we shall never hear.â€
And the Commandant’s face worked frightfully.
“She was my sister, Sefior!â€
“Heavens! sir, and have you not avenged her 2â€
“On churchmen, Sefior, 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-Fé 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.â€
“Tt will not take long to make a brave and wise
THE GREAT GALLEON, 299
gentleman who has suffered such things as you have,
a heretic, as you call it—a free Christian man, as we
call it.â€
““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, Sefior, the best of Catholics, though a great
sinner.—I trust no one has overheard us !â€
Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to
look for Lucy Passmore, whom the sailors were nurs-
ing and feeding, while Ayacanora watched them with
a puzzled face.
“T will talk to you when you are better, Lucy,â€
said he, taking her hand. “Now you must eat and
drink, and forget all among us lads of Devon.â€
“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!â€
“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.â€
“She is an Englishwoman, child, and a martyr, poor
thing; and I would nurse her as I would my own
mother.â€
“Why don’t you make me an Englishwoman, and
a martyr? I could learn how to do anything that
that old hag could do !â€
300 HOW THEY TOOK
“Instead of calling her names, go and tend her;
that would be much fitter work for a woman than
fighting among men.â€
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.
“Tn the best cabin; and let her be served like a
queen, lads.â€
~ “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 ?â€
“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.†‘
“Tf 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.â€
“Well, I suppose we may get a whet by now. I
wonder if these Dons have any beer aboard.â€
THE GREAT GALLEON. 301
“Nought but grape vinegar, which fools call wine,
Tl warrant.â€
“There was better than vinegar on the table in
there just now.â€
“Ah,†said one grumbler of true English breed,
“but that’s not for poor fellows like we.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
But what was the story of the intendant’s being
murdered? Brimblecombe had seen him run into a
neighbouring 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 Brimble-
combe 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
302 HOW THEY TOOK
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 thought-
fully.
“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.â€
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 punish-
ment.
And so that wild night and day subsided. The
prisoners were kindly used enough; for the English-
man, 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, cap-
tives and captors shook hands all round; and Amyas,
after returning the Commandant his sword, and pre-
senting him with a case of the bishop’s wine, bowed
him courteously over the side.
“T trust that you will pay us another visit, valiant
Sefior Capitan,†said the Spaniard, bowing and smiling.
THE GREAT GALLEON. 303
“T should most gladly accept your invitation, illus-
trious. Sefior 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.â€
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 intel-
lect 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 afresh 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.
304 HOW THEY TOOK
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 re-
mained 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 favour 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.
THE GREAT GALLEON. 305
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
Carthagena.
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 incul-
pate 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-Fé; 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
gave no quarter to Spaniards wherever he should find
them, who can wonder, even if they blame ?
VOL. IT. x Ww. HH.
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.â€
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 con-
stancy 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 honours 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.
HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID. 307
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 appear-
ance, 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 for-
bade 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 sweet
meats 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
II. X2
308 HOW SALVATION YEO
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 con-
science, 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,
honourably 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 per-
suaded, 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
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN, 309
require an account at his hands of the soul of that
fair lost lamb.
So, almost at his wit’s 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 refus-
ing 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 him-
IL. x8
310 HOW SALVATION YEO
self ; 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, com-
plained 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.
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 311
The ship had been slipping along now for many a
day, slowly but steadily before a favourable 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 disci-
pline 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. Butin 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 Havanna and Carthagena, was going
on, it seemed, to some Sefiora or other at the Carraccas.
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 her-
self like a peacock before the eyes of Amyas in Seville
mantillas, Madrid hats, Indian brocade farthingales,
312 HOW SALVATION YEO
Weaws, 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 success-
fully for three days or so; but at last the dupe,
anable to contain herself longer, appealed to Amyas,
—* Ayaeaora quite English girl now; is she not?â€
—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. Bat she had locked
herseli im with Lucy, and he could hear her violent
sohe, and Lmey’s faint voice entreating to know what
was the mnaiter,
Im 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, erying still as if her
heart: would break; while poor Lucy eried too, half
irom fright amd hunger, and half for company.
Amyas tried to comfort the poor child, assured
her that the men should never laugh at her again ;
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 313
“But then,†added he, “you must not be so—so——_â€
What to say he hardly knew.
“So what?†asked she, crying more bitterly than
ever.
“So like a wild girl, Ayacanora,â€
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 !â€
“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!â€
“'There’s my good maid,†said Amyas. “Sir John
shall begin and teach you to-morrow.â€
“No! Now! now! Ayacanora cannot wait. She
will drown herself if she is bad another day! Come,
now !â€
And she made him feteh Brimblecombe, heard the
honest fellow patiently for an hour or more, and told
Luey that very night all that he had said. And from
that day, whenever Jack went in to read and pray
with the poor sufferer, Ayacamora, instead of escaping
on deck as before, stood patiently trying to make it.
all out, and knelé when he knelt, and tried to pray
too—that she might have an English heart; and
doubtless her prayers, dwmb as they were, were not
unheard.
314 HOW SALVATION YEO
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; Brimble-
combe 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 Mznad, and, seeing Amyas, stopped
short.
“Tf 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.â€
“T am innocent—innocent as the babe unborn!
Oh! Mr. Cary! this is too bad of you, sir!†quoth
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 315
Jack indignantly, while Amyas asked what was the
matter.
“He looked at me,†said she, sturdily.
“Well, a cat may look at a king.â€
‘But he shan’t look at Ayacanora. Nobody shall
but you, or I'll kill him !â€
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.â€
“God give me grace, or it may be one on the
wrong side for me.â€
“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 fly-
ing-fish scudding from the bonitos. At last, tired of
doing nothing, she went forward to thé poop-rail to
listen to John Squire the armourer, who sat tinkering
a head-piece, 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.â€
316 HOW SALVATION YEO
‘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.â€
Here Yeo broke in—
“Arn’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.â€
“You sing ’em yourself then, gunner.â€
“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.â€
“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 ‘Rumbe-
low ’—even when he’s heaving of the anchor 2â€
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. quel;
“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 0,
A whet of ale and brandy, O,
With a rumbelow and a westward-ho !
And heave, my mariners all, O!
“Ts that fit talk for immortal souls? How does
that child’s-trade sound beside the Psalms, John
Squire ?â€
Now it befell that Salvation Yeo, for the very pur-
pose of holding up to ridicule that time-honoured
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 Aya-
canora, 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
318 HOW SALVATION YEO
sworn it was her ; just as we taught her to sing it by
the river there, I and William Penberthy of Mara-
zion, my good comrade. The Lord have mercy on
me !â€
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 herelf—
‘‘ And heave my mariners all, 0!â€
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?â€
Ayacanora looked up at him, half frightened by
his vehemence, then at Amyas, to see if she had been
doing anything wrong; and then turning saucily away,
looked over the side, and hummed on.
“Ask her for mercy’s sake—ask her, Captain
Leigh!â€
“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 ?â€
Ayacanora looked up at him puzzled, and shook
her head ; and then—
“Tf you tell Indian to Ayacanora, she dumb. She
must be English girl now, like poor Lucy.â€
“Well then,†said Amyas, “do you recollect,
Ayacanora—do you recollect—what shall I say? any-
thing that happened when you were a little girl 2â€
She paused awhile; and then moving her hands
overhead—
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 319
“Trees—great trees like the Magdalena—always ;
nothing but trees—wild and bad everything. Aya-
canora won't talk about that.â€
“Do you mind anything that grew on those trees ?â€
asked Yeo eagerly.
She laughed. “Silly! Flowers and fruit, and
nuts—grow on all trees, and monkey-cups too. Aya-
canora climbed up after them—when she was wild.
I won't tell any more.â€
“But who taught you to call them monkey-cups?â€
asked Yeo, trembling with excitement.
“Monkey’s drink; mono drink.â€
“Mono 2†said Yeo, foiled on one cast, and now try-
ing another. “How did you know the beasts were
called monos 2â€
“She might have heard it coming down with us,â€
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.â€
This allusion to Brimblecombe and the preaching
apes upset all but old Yeo.
“But don’t you recollect any Christians —white
people 2â€
She was silent.
“Don’t you mind a white lady !â€
“Um?â€
“A woman, a very pretty woman, with hair like
@ pointing to Amyas.
“No,â€
his
320 HOW SALVATION YEO
“What do you mind then, beside those Indians ?â€
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 wp her hand above her head, and
made a violent gesture of disgust.
“Monkeys ? what, with tails?â€
‘No, like man. Ah! yes—just like Cooky there—
dirty Cooky !â€
And that hapless son of Ham, who happened to be
just crossing the maindeck, 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, with-
out, of course, any such intention.
“Tl 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 2â€
“But why should any one who had seen whites for-
get 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 awhile,—“ Devil.â€
“Devil?†asked all three, who, of course, were by
no means free from the belief that the fiend did
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 321
actually appear to the Indian conjurors, such as had
brought up the girl.
“Ay, him Sir John tell about on Sundays.â€
“Save and help us!†said Yeo: “and what was he
like unto?â€
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.
“T 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 Seftor Commandant’s, the Spaniard ?â€
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 !——â€
“Ay!†said she, in good enough Spanish, “Mono
de Panama ; viejo diablo de Panama.â€
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
VOL. IL Yi W.
322 HOW SALVATION YEO
a black beard, and black curls, and swore terribly in
his speech, like a Spaniard, my dear young lady 2â€
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.â€
“ 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?â€
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-sit-
ting 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 ?â€â€”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.
â€s hands
covered Ayacanora
Chap. xxvii. p. 822.
g¢ on his knees,
fallin
The honest fellow,
15Ses. —'
with ki
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 323
“Do you remember anything of all this, my child?â€
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 your-
self, my child. You were better to go down, and
see after poor Lucy, and we will talk about it all to-
morrow.â€
She gathered herself up instantly, and with eyes
fixed on the deck slid through the group, and disap-
peared 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! 4
““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?â€
“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 !â€
And Yeo grasped Amyas’s hand, and went down
324 HOW SALVATION YEO
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 dis-
tant 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, Brimble-
combe, 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 increas-
ing the distance between him and her. The crew, of
course, though they were a little vexed at losing their
FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID AGAIN. 825
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 per-
verse 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,
IL, ¥2
326 HOW SALVATION YEO FOUND HIS LITTLE MAID.
and him to kill them.†If he had not been the most
sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have fore-
stalled 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
Filibustiers 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 mad-
dening for one whose heart grew heavier and humbler
day by day, the nightingale notes were heard no more.
So homeward they ran, before a favouring south-
west breeze: but long ere they were within sight of
land, Lucy Passmore was gone to her rest beneath the
Atlantic waves,
f onaecen Sam
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.
‘¢ Tt did na graw by bush or brae,
Nor yet in ony shough ;
But by the gates o’ paradise
That birk grew fair eneugh.â€
The Wife of Usher's Well.
Ir 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
1. V8
328 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
unknown. Three weary years, and yet no word. Once
there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard (with-
out 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 Carthagena, 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 !â€
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 neighbouring
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 sand-hills
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,
THE THIRD TIME, 329
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 astir. 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 street 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 bon-
fires in every village ; and far away, the bells of Bide-
ford 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
330 HOW. AMYAS CAME HOME
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.â€
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.â€
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 her-
self. 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
THE THIRD TIME. 331
(which even in those coarser days was not very much),
of that godless style of French court proftigacy in which
poor Mary had had her youthful training, amid the
Medicis, and the Guises, and Cardinal Lorraine 3 and
she shuddered, and sighed to herselfi—“
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
332 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
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 honour. 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
THE THIRD TIME. 333
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 !â€
“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?â€
“T heard his voice on the river: but I did not
hear Mr. Frank’s with him, Grace !â€
“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.â€
And Mrs. Leigh, with Grace behind her, started
with rapid steps towards Bideford.
Was it true? Was itadream? Had the divine
instinct of the mother enabled her to recognise 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 ?
334 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
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 after-
wards 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 !â€
“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 !â€â€”
And Amyas fell on his knees at her fect.
She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her
fair head over his, while sailors, *prentices, and coarse
harbour-vomen 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.â€
“ You need not tell me that, Amyas Leigh, my son.â€
wast
fair head
and bent her
over his.—Chap. xxviii. p. 384.
She threw her arms round his neck,
THE THIRD TIME. 335
Another silence.
“How did he die?†whispered Mrs. Leigh.
“He is a martyr. He died in the ne
Amyas could say no more.
“The Inquisition 2?â€
“Yes.â€
A strong shudder passed through Mrs. Leigh’s
frame, and then she lifted up her head.
“Come home, Amyas. I little expected such an
honour—such an honour—ha! ha! and such a fair
young martyr, too; a very St. Stephen! God, have
merey 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 4â€
And she pointed to Ayacanora, who stood close
behind Amyas, watching with keen eyes the whole.
“She isa poor wild Indian girl—my daughter, I
call her. I will tell you her story hereafter.â€
“Your daughter? My grand-daughter, then.
Come hither, maiden, and be my grand-daughter.â€
Ayacanora came obedient ; and knelt down, because
she had seen Amyas kneel.
“God forbid, child! kneel not tome. Come home,
and let me know whether I am sane or mazed, alive
or dead.â€
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.
336 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
Mrs. Leigh stopped suddenly.
“Thad forgotten, Amyas. You must not let me
stand in the way of your duty. Where are your
men?â€
“Kissed to death by this time; all of them, that
is, who are left.â€
“Left ?â€
“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!â€
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
arough 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.â€
“Yes; a martyr’s death was the fittest for him.â€
“T have brought home treasure untold.â€
“What, my boy ?â€
“Treasure untold. Cary has promised to see to it
to-night.â€
“Very well. I would that he had slept at our house.
He was a kindly lad, and loved Frank. When did
he?â€
“Three years ago, and more. Within two months
of our sailing.â€
“Ah! Yes, he told me so.â€
THE THIRD TIME. 337
“Told you so ?â€
“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.â€
“But I loved you none the less, mother !â€
“T 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 ?â€
“ Ayacanora’s heart is warm; she does not think
about cold.â€
“Warm? perhaps you will warm my heart for me,
then,â€
“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 !â€
“Blessed creature !†cried Amyas, “if you speak so
I shall go mad. Mother, mother, I have been dread-
ing 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,
VOL, II, Z W, 4,
338 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
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, be-
tokened 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.†Aya-
canora pouted.
“She will laugh at me, because I am wild.â€
“She never laughs at any one.â€
“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.â€
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.
THE THIRD TIME. 339
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 ?â€
“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 honour him as
TI honour you.â€
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 Grenvile.
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 tellmeall. The sailors told mea
340 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
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.â€
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 some-
thing 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!â€
“You can show a better one, I doubt not.â€
“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.â€
“You are too modest, sir.â€
“Would that I were; but I got on in Treland, I
found, no better than my neighbours; 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 seeno 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 3 furs,
timber, rivers, game, sugar-canes, corn, fruit, and every
THE THIRD TIME. | 34]
commodity which France, Spain, or Italy can yield,
wild in abundance; the savages civil enough for
savages, and, in a sae! 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.â€
“You have been there, then 2â€
‘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 them-
selves 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
neon on the por tugals 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 Erion should fall into the hands of
IL. Z2
342 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
any but her Majesty; and we will try again this
spring, if men and money can be found. Eh, lad?â€
“But the prize ?â€
“Ah! that was no small make-weight to our dis-
asters, 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 sunk;
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 valour 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.â€
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.
THE THIRD TIME. 343
\??
“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?â€
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.
“Tam ashamed to have to tell you, sir, that the
man still lives,â€
“Still lives, sir?â€
“Too true, as far as I know. That it was not my
fault, my story bears me witness.â€
“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 awhile with the fair lass
whom you have brought home (as I hear) before
having another dash at the devil and his kin !â€
“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.â€
Salterne smiled grimly.
“But Iam 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.â€
. “Well, sir, when you start, come to me for a ship,
IL. Z8
344 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME
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.â€
“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.â€
“My share, sir? If I understood you, my ship
was lost off the coast of Carraccas three years agone,
and this treasure was all won since ?â€
“True; but you, as an adventurer in the expedition,
have a just claim for your share, and will receive it.â€
“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 â€â€”(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
THE THIRD TIME. 345
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.â€
“She was worthy of that, and more, sir, For if
she sinned like a woman, she died like a saint,â€
“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.â€
And the old man rose, and with an unmoved coun-
tenance, 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 !â€
That evening a messenger from Bideford came run-
ning breathless up to Burrough Court. The authori-
ties wanted Amyas’s immediate attendance, for he was
one of the last, it seemed, who had scen 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
346 HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME.
make him answer, and at last called in the neighbours,
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.
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.â€
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 nick-nacks, useful or 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
348 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
puts it away never to look atit 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 help-
ing 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 cot-
tages. 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-offer-
ing was rather that of the Indians, and indeed of the
Spaniards,—sacrifices of human victims, and the be-
dizenment 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 re-
splendent 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 under-
stand that: but the almsgiving she could not, till Mrs.
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 349
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 pout-
ing, 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 congrega-
tion. 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 up-stairs, brought them down,
and insisted so stoutly on arraying the vicar therein,
that the good man beat a swift retreat. But he carried
350 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 !â€
Another great trouble which she gave Mrs. Leigh
was her conduct to the ladies of the neighbourhood.
They came, of course, one and all, not only to con-
gratulate 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 Grenvile 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.â€
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.â€
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
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 351
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.â€
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 Guacho.
And now awoke another curious slumbering remini-
scence. For one day, at Lady Grenvile’s invitation,
the whole family went over to Stow; Mrs. Leigh
352 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 woke 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 stepfather; 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 ven-
geance of exposing her in the forests.
Other little facts came to light, one by one. They
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 353
were all connected (as was natural in a savage) with
some animal, or other natural object. Whatever im-
pressions 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.â€
This man was to be baptized in the church at Bide-
ford, by the name of Raleigh ; his sponsors being
most probably Raleigh himself, who may have been
there on Virginian business, and Sir Richard Grenvile.
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 corpora-
tion-men appeared in full robes, with maces and tip-
staffs, to do honour to that first-fruits of the Gospel
in the West.
Mrs, Leigh: went, as a matter of course, and Aya-
canora would needs go too. She was very anxious to
know what they were going to do with the “Carib.â€
“To make him a Christian.â€
“Why did they not make her one 2â€
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
VOL, II, 2A Ww.
354 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 faint-
ing upon Mrs. Leigh’s bosom.
She was carried out, and to a neighbouring 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 odour,
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.â€
So Ayacanora went home to Burrough, and Raleigh
the Indian to Sir Richard’s house. The entry of his
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 355
baptism still stands, crooked-lettered, in the old parch-
ment register of the Bideford baptisms for 1587-8—
“Raleigh, a Winganditoian: March 26.â€
His name occurs once more, a year and a month
after—
“Rawly, a Winganditoian, April 1589.â€
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 civilisation
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, entreat-
ing 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
356 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 attempt-
ing to do still more.
For now we are approaching the year 1588, “which
an astronomer of Kénigsberg, above a hundred years
before, foretold would be an admirable year, and the
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND, 357
German chronologers presaged would be the climac-
terical year of the world.â€
The prophecies may stand for what they are worth g
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 housesâ€
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
358 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 des-
tined victim ; so, instead of negotiating, in order to
avoid fighting, they fought in order to produce nego-
tiation. 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, Grenviles 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 de-
fender 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.â€
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, excom-
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 359 ©
municate, contumacious, the abettor of free-trade, the
defender of the Netherlands, the pillar of false doc-
trine 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 valour, inex-
haustible 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; no-
thing 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 cru-
sade. 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 cru-
sade. Justly incensed at her own wrongs and indig-
nities, that ‘ ever-gracious Virgin, refuge of sinners,
and mother of fair love, and holy hope,’ adjured by
their knightly honour, 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 Par-
sons had asserted it, therefore it must be true) had
360 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 Eliza-
beth !â€
So said Parsons, Allen, and dozens more 3 and said
more than this, too, and much which one had rather
not repeat ; and were somewhat surprised and morti-
fied to find that their hearers, though they granted
the premisses, were too dull or carnal to arrive at the
same conclusion. The English lay Romanists, almost
to aman, 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
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND, 361
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 princi-
palities 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 some-
what 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 pros-
pered 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 there-
fore, she was a convenient card to play in the great
362 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 astonish-
ment 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.â€
The Spaniard was not sorry on the whole for the
catastrophe ; for all that had kept him from con-
quering England long ago, was the fear lest, after it
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 363
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.
“FE. Drake to Captain Amyas Leigh. This with haste.
“DEAR Lap,
“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 Pll
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
zou “Thine lovingly,
“Tf, DRAKE.â€
Amyas clutched his locks over this letter, and
smoked more tobacco the day he got it than had ever
364 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 HONOURED 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 Lic.â€
Tam 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.
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 365
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 favour 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 breath-
ing a prayer that Don Guzman might not die before
that meeting.
In the meanwhile, rumour 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 rebel-
ling against Elizabeth, the Bull of Sixtus the Fifth,
said (I blush to repeat it) to have been dictated by
366 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
the Holy Ghost ; of Inquisitors getting ready fetters
and devil’s engines of all sorts; of princes and noble-
men, flocking from all quarters, gentlemen selling
their private estates to fit out ships; how the Prince
of Melito, the Marquess of Burgrave, Vespasian Gon-
zaga, 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 neces-
sary 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 Edge-
combe 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 housewarming 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.â€
So flew rumour, 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 assur-
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 367
ing him again and again that he, and not the Dutch-
man, 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 com-
plete 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 danger-
ous 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
368 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
it was that, acting as fully as Napoleon did on “la
carriére 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 Grenvile made his appearance on the
streets of Bideford. He had been appointed in No-
vember 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
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 369
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.’â€
“T 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.â€
“God will take care of world and Bible better than
any cruelty of ours, dear Sir Richard.â€
“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.â€
“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?â€
“Not a word, and I wonder why.â€
“Well; no wonder at that, if you knew how he
VOL, IL. 2B W. H.
370 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
has been labouring. The wonder is, whence he got
the knowledge wherewith to labour; for he never
saw sea-work to my remembrance.â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
“Quite right he, and wooden walls against stone
ones forever! But as for twisting, he would persuade
Satan, if he got him alone for half an hour.â€
“T 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 honour, really?â€
“Weare, 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,
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 371
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.â€
“Then here is his health, the health of a true friend
to all bold mariners, and myself in particular! But
where is he now 2†i
“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.â€
‘Besides Lord Warden of the Stannaries! How
the man thrives!†said Mrs. Leigh.
“How the man deserves to thrive!†said Amyas ;
“but what are we to do?â€
“That is the rub. I would fain stay and fight
the Spaniards.â€
“So would I; and will.â€
“But he has other plans in his head for us.â€
“We can make our own plans without his help.â€
“Heyday, Amyas! How long? When did he
ask you to do a thing yet and you refuse him 2â€
“Not often, certainly: but Spaniards I must fight.â€
“Well, so must I, boy: but I have given a sort of
promise to him, nevertheless.â€
“Not for me too, I hope?â€
“No: he will extract that himself when he comes ;
you must come and sup to-morrow, and talk it over.â€
“Be talked over, rather. What chestnut does the
cat want us monkeys to pull out of the fire for him
now, I wonder?â€
372 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
“Sir Richard Grenvile is hardly accustomed to be
called a monkey,†said Mrs. Leigh.
“T meant no harm; and his worship knows it,
none better: but where is Raleigh going to send us,
with a murrain 2â€
- “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.â€
So Raleigh came, saw, and conquered. Mrs. Leigh ©
consented to Amyas’s going (for his twelvemonth
would be over ere the fleet could start) upon so
peaceful and useful an errand; and the next five
months were spent in continual labour on the part of
Amyas and Grenvile, 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
——
Des
The wonder of the little boys of Northam.—Chap. xxix. p. 372.
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 373
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 flymg
dragons, and then popped back their heads suddenly,
.as he turned toward them in his walk. And Aya-
canora 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 3 for his
head was full of calculations of tonage 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?â€
“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.â€
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 2â€
“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
te
874 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 to-
ward 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.â€
“Shall I ever be an English girl?†asked Ayacanora.
“You are one now, sweet; your father was an
English gentleman.â€
Amyas looked in, and saw the two sitting together.
“You seem quite merry there,†said he.
“Come in, then, and be merry with us.â€
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.â€
“T 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.â€
“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 â€
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 375
“T don’t know anything about it,†said she, who
was always nettled at the least allusion to her past
wild life. “Iam an English girl now, and all that is
gone—I forget it.â€
“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 ?â€
“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.â€
“Tt 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?â€
“T 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.â€
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.
“T 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
376 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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 !â€
“Break your heart, mother ?â€
“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 2â€
“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 lend-
ing 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.
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 377
But, Amyas, Amyas, are you so blind as not to see
that Ayacanora
“Don’t talk about her, poor child. Talk about
yourself.â€
“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 fear-
ful prodigy ; for she is not one to die tamely. She
loves you, Amyas, as 2 woman only can love.â€
“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.â€
“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.â€
“You are in earnest 2â€
“Have I the heart or the time to jest?â€
“No, no, of course not: but, mother, I thought it
was not comely for women to fall in love with men 2â€
“Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men.
But she has never done that, Amyas; not sven by a
look or a tone of voice, though I have watched her
for months.â€
To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am
in the way. I only wonder how you found it out.â€
“Ah,†said she, smiling sadly, “even in the saddest
378 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
woman’s soul there linger snatches of old music,
odours 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.â€
“You would not have me marry her?†asked blunt,
practical Amyas.
“God knows what I would have,—I know not ;
Isee neither your path nor my own,—no, not Mie
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.â€
“T’d sail to-morrow, if I could. As for marrying
her, mother—her birth, mind me a
“Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of
the parents upon the children ?â€
“Not that. I don’t mean that; but I mean this,
that she is half a Spaniard, mother; and J 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.â€
“Amyas! Amyas!†interrupted she, “is this not,
too, visiting the parents’ sins on the children ?â€
“Not a whit; it is common sense,—she must have
the taint of their bloodthirsty humour. She has it—
I have seen it in her again and again. I have told
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 379
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 !â€
“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!â€
“Of her love ?â€
“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!â€
“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 â€â€”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?â€
“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 ?â€
“TJ 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
380 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
telling Master Jack, ‘ Your illustrious grand-uncle the
Pope’s legate, was the man who burned Rose Salterne
at Carthagena ;’ or Miss Grace, ‘Your great grand-
father 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 ?â€
“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 !â€
Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,—
“Tf it were not for you, mother, would God that
the Armada would come !â€
“What, and ruin England ?â€
“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, fight-
ing 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.â€
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 381
“Tf Iam in your way, Amyas, do not fear that I
shall trouble you long.â€
“Oh, mother, mother! do not talk in that way!
I am half-mad, I think, already, and don’t know what
I say. Yes, 1am 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.â€
“Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child!
Who comes to the door ?—so quickly, too?â€
There was aloud hurried knocking, and in another
minute a serving-man hurried in with a letter.
“This to Captain Amyas Leigh, with haste, haste !â€
It was Sir Richard’s hand. Amyas tore it open ;
and “a loud laugh laughed he.â€
“The Armada is coming! My wish has come
true, mother !â€
“God help us, it has! Show me the letter.â€
It was a hurried scrawl.
“TD® GODSON,
“Walsingham sends word that the A“*
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.â€
“Forgive me, mother, mother, once for all!†cried
Amyas, throwing his arms round her neck.
“T have nothing to forgive, my son, my son!
And shall I lose thee, also?â€
382 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
“Tf [be killed, you will have two martyrs of your
blood, mother !——â€
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 mer-
chants and captains,
“Gloria, gloria! gentles all! The devil is broke
loose at last; and now we know where to have him
on the hip!â€
“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 ?â€
“You seem to forget the danger and the woe of us
weak women, sir?â€
“T 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 any-
thing, Madam.â€
“Nor forgive either, it seems,â€
“Tt will be time to talk of forgiveness after the
offender has repented and amended ; and does the
sailing of the Armada look like that?â€
“Alas no! God help us!â€
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN'S COMMAND. 383
“Te 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 gentle-
men’s spirit, I should say the orders were well-nigh
needless.â€
“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.â€
“Or a tongue to say, never surrender, [ll warrant !â€
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.â€
“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. X
“My good sir,†said Grenvile, “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 honour 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.â€
“Right, sir!†said Amyas. “For my part, let my
Virginian goods rot on the quay, if the worst comes
384 HOW THE VIRGINIA FLEET WAS
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.â€
And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were
past, most of the neighbouring 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
favourable 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,
STOPPED BY THE QUEEN’S COMMAND. 385
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 !â€
“God forgive him! Come home and pray, my
child ; there is no other rest on earth than prayer for
woman’s heart !â€
They were calling each other mother and daughter
then? Yes. The sacred fire of sorrow was fast burn-
ing out all Ayacanora’s fallen savageness ; and, like a
Pheenix, the true woman was rising from those ashes,
fair, noble, and all-enduring, as God had made her.
-VOL. IL 20¢ W. H.
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 !â€
Cornish Song.
Waar 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
ADMIRAL HAWKINS AND THE CROAKERS. 387
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 mer-
chant 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 to-morrow 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 enter-
ing lazily into other men’s labours, as the mob does,
labour themselves ; who know by hard experience the
IL. 202
388 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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 inven-
tion, 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-ereen
behind the Pelican Inn, on the afternoon of the nine-
teenth 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,â€
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 awhile, 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
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 389
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 recognise already; they are Walter Raleigh’s.
The fair young man in the flame-coloured doublet,
whose arm is round Raleigh’s neck, is Lord Sheffield ;
opposite them stands, by the side of Sir Richard
Grenvile, 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 gar-
ments, 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.
IL 208
390 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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 Arma-
geddon fight has shaken him altogether out of his
usual crabbed reserve, and made him overflow with
loquacious good-humour, 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 im-
perial, 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
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 391
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 J 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’s 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
euns, 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 grand-child, a little maid of six,
has laid her curly head upon his knees, and his grand-
392 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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?â€
“Quiet, Gramfer, and don’t trouble his worship.â€
“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.â€
“‘Marcy, Gramfer, where’s your manners? Don’t
be vexed, sir, he’m a’most a babe, and tejous at times,
mortal.â€
“Young master who?†says Amyas, bending down
to the old man, and smiling to the dame to let him
have his way.
TESTIFIED AGAINST 'CROAKERS. 393
“Master Hawkins; he’m never been a-near me all
day.â€
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 mess-
age.
“Mercy on me! Where be my wits? Iss, ’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 !â€
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
394 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
and babies! You and I shall be like to that one day,
young Samson !â€
“We shall have slain a good many Philistines first,
IT hope.â€
“Amen! so be it: but look to mun! so fine a
sailor as ever drank liquor: and now greedy after a
bit of sweet trade! ’tis piteous like: but I bring mun
a bit 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 heis. Wem
up now, we Hawkinses. We may be down again
some day.â€
“Never, I trust,†said Amyas.
‘Tain’t no use trusting, young man: you go and
do. Ido 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, justâ€
And off waddled the Port-admiral.
“ You have seen good King Henry, then, father?â€
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 p
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 395
“The Field of the Cloth of Gold, Gramfer,†sug-
gested 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, ’twas royal!—
Seed mun? Iss, fegs! And I’ve seed mun do what
few has ; I’ve seed mun christle like any child.â€
“ What—cry?†said Amyas. “I shouldn’t have
thought there was much cry in him.â€
“You think what you like a
“Gramfer, Gramfer, don’t you be rude, now——
“Tet him go on,†said Amyas,
“J 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.â€
“But when ?â€
“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
ey)
396 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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 !â€
“He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir.â€
“T guessed so.â€
“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 armour.â€
And he pointed to Sir George Carew and Sir
Richard Grenvile.
“Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens. Drowned like
rattens !â€
“Now; you mustn’t trouble his worship any more.â€
“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.â€
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.â€
“Fillo, 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.â€
“River Plate?†said old Martin; “It’s I knows
about the River Plate; none so well. Who'd ever
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 397
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.â€
“What year was that?â€
“Tn 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.â€
“Before that?†said Cary ; “ Why, the country was
hardly known before that.â€
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, Iv’e 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 y
“But,†said Amyas, seeing that the old man was,
wandering away, “what do you mind about America ?â€
398 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
“America? Ishould think so! But I was a-going
to tell you of the Regent—and seven hundred English-
men burnt and drowned in her, and nine hundréd
French in the Brest ship, besides what we picked up.
Oh dear! But about America.â€
“Yes, about America. How are you the father of
all the captains ?â€
“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!â€
“Then here’s your health, and long life, sir!†said
Amyas and Cary.
“Tong life? Iss, fegs, I reckon, long enough
aready! Why, I mind the beginning of it all, I do.
I mind when there wasn’t a master mariner to Ply-
mouth, 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—’I'was 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.â€
“Columbus ?â€
“Iss, fegs, he did, not a pistol-shot from us; and
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 399
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 disap-
pointed, 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 de 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. “Iwas dark parts, and Popish, then; and
nobody knowed nothing, nor got no schooling, nor
cared for nothing, but scrattling up and down along-
shore like to prawns ina 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,
Iwill! I was born into the old times: but I'll see
the wondrous works of the new, yet, I will! I'l see
they bloody Spaniards swept off the seas before I die,
if my old eyes can reach so far as outside the Sound.
400 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
I shall, I knows it. I says my prayers for it every
night; don’t I, Mary? Yow'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,
Tll 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!â€
“Tll 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 ?â€
“You were up the Plate with Cabot?†said Cary,
after a pause. “Do you mind the fair lady Miranda,
Sebastian de Hurtado’s wife ?â€
“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!
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 401
Mind her? I minded nought else when she was on
deck.â€
“Who was she?†asked Amyas of Cary.
“A Spanish angel, Amyas.â€
“Humph!†said Amyas. ‘So much the worse
for her, to be born into a nation of devils.â€
“They’m not all so bad as that, yer honour. Her
husband was a proper gallant gentleman, and kind as
a maid, too, and couldn’t abide that De Solis’s
murderous doings.â€
“Fis wife must have taught it him, then,†said
Amyas, rising. ‘Where did you hear of these black
swans, Cary ?â€
“T have heard of them, and that’s enough,â€
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.â€
“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 ?â€
“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
VOL, IL. 2D W. HL
402 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
Majesty’s servant, and talks about failing, as if he
were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her apple-
squire ashore! JBlurt for him, sneak up! say I.â€
“Admiral John Hawkins,†quoth the offender,
“vou shall answer this language with your sword.â€
“Tl answer it with my foot; and buy me a pair
of horn-tips to my shoes, like a wraxling man. Fight
acroaker? Fight a frog, an owl! I fight those that
dare fight, sir!â€
“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 %â€
“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
Ill present him, with a vengeance, though I’m no
churchwarden.â€
“Tf this is really so, Admiral Hawkins te
“Tt 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 over-steady, 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.
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 403
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.â€
“«Ffe 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 honour to entertain his quarrel
myself—place, time, and weapons being at your
choice.â€
“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, yow'll let them
fight ?â€
“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 com-
plaining 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 ?â€
“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.â€
404 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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.â€
“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.â€
“Youw'm right, Frank. My old father always told
me—and old King Hal (Bless his memory!) would
“My Lord, my Lord! they’m coming !â€â€”Chap. xxx. p. 405.
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 405
take his counsel among a thousand 3‘ 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 J. ack, or
youll find none, leastwise 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 ?â€
“Captain Fleming, as I’m a sinner.â€
“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!â€
“I think so, truly,†said Drake. “His eyes are
near out of his head.â€
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 !â€
“Who? my good sir, who seem to have left your
manners behind you.â€
“The Armada, your worship,—the Spaniard : but
II 2D2
406 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
as for my manners, ’tis no fault of mine, for I never
had none to leave behind me.â€
“Tf 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.â€
“Tf 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.â€
“Sirrah,†said Lord Howard, “‘is this no fetch, to
cheat us out of your pardon for these piracies of
yours ?â€
“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.â€
“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 ?â€
“Very true, your Lordship,†said Hawkins, molli-
fied. “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.â€
“Admiral Hawkins, Admiral Hawkins, this is no.
time for drinking.â€
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 407
“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 !â€
“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 !â€
“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.â€
“T 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.â€
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
IL 2D3
408 HOW ADMIRAL JOHN HAWKINS
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 !â€
“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.
“Kh, Captain Leigh, where’s my boy Dick ?â€
“Gone off with his lordship, Sir John.â€
“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?â€
“T 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.â€
“Not a whit,†said Amyas. “Only I can’t help
wondering whether I shall find him, after all.â€
“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.â€
“ Ay, but it’s ill looking for a needle in a haystack.
TESTIFIED AGAINST CROAKERS. 409
But I shall find him. I am a coward to doubt it,â€
said Amyas, setting his teeth.
“There, Vice-Admiral, yow’re beaten, and that’s the
rubber. Pay up three dollars, old high-flyer, and go
and earn more, like an honest adventurer.â€
“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.â€
“Or had to run home from St. Juan D’Ulloa with
half a crew.â€
“Well if we haven’t to run out with half crews.
I saw a sight of our lads drunk about this morning.â€
“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.â€
LfoRaPcEr
EE of
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.â€
CamesELL, Ye Mariners of England.
AND now began that great sea-fight which was to de-
termine whether Popery and despotism or Protestant-
ism 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
within 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
THE GREAT ARMADA. 411
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
endeavours, 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 ex-
pression) 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 mancuvre, the “principal
galleon of Seville,†in which are Pedro de Valdez and
a host of blue-blooded Dons, runs foul of her neigh-
bour, 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 Coen 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
412 THE GREAT ARMADA.
they have fared no better than this against a third of
the Plymouth ficet, 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
aman, 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 arunning 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 demeanour.â€
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
THE GREAT ARMADA. g 413
where it is, I can’t sce, unless he has been taken up
aloft there among the stars for a new Drakium Sidus.â€
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 some-
what arbitrary, like most men’s in those days) ran
somewhat thus :—
“DEAR Lap,
“T 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
414 THE GREAT ARMADA,
stood not with his honour, 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,
“PF, 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 Dun-
irk.â€
THE GREAT ARMADA. 415
“The admiral is in a gracious humour, Leigh, to
have vouchsafed you so long a letter.â€
“St. Catharine! why, that was the galleon we
hammered all yesterday!†said Amyas, stamping on
the deck.
“Of course it was. Well, we sliall 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.â€
“Lord Howard is too high-hearted to stop and
plunder, Papist though he is, Amyas.â€
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
416 THE GREAT ARMADA.
snapped up by their next neighbour, 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 Nether-
land gunner, who, being “mis-used,†was minded to
pay off old scores 6n 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 GREAT ARMADA. 417
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 honour
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 dis-
charged 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 allâ€
(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 voleano ; 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
honourable name, “as to a set field, where immortal
fame and honour was to be attained.†Spain has
staked her chivalry in that mighty cast; not a noble
VOL, IL QE Ww.
418 THE GREAT ARMADA.
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 :
put 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. J: ames’s-day, ‘sacred to the patron
saint of Spain. Shall nothing be attempted in his
honour 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 favouring 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 salvos 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.
THE GREAT ARMADA 419
Frobisher beats down the Spanish Admiral’s main-
mast; 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.â€
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-south-west, glide
forward the two great fleets, past Brighton Cliffs and
Beachy Head, Hastings and Dungeness, Is it a battle
420 THE GREAT ARMADA.
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 honourable 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.â€
And meanwhile the cliffs are lined with pikemen
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 waggons, 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
THE GREAT ARMADA.’ 421
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
eall 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
492 THE GREAT ARMADA.
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 guid-
ing 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 armourer, for a whet-
stone, 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
THE GREAT ARMADA. 423
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, Grenvile, 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 5
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.
“T cannot communicate, Sir John. Charity with
all men? I hate, if ever man hated on earth.â€
“You hate the Lord’s foes only, Captain Leigh.â€
“No, Jack, I hate my own as well.â€
“But no one in the fleet, sir?â€
“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 con-
science 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.â€
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,
424 THE GREAT ARMADA.
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 re-
turned 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 Sabbath-day, before the little
high-walled town and the long range of yellow sand-
hills, 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
THE GREAT ARMADA. 425
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.â€
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 dra-
gooned 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.
426 THE GREAT ARMADA.
And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful
panics, which so often follow overweening presump-
tion; 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 neighbour.
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 reform. 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
THE GREAT ARMADA. 427
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 honour 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
428 THE GREAT ‘ARMADA.
smaller are fighting with all sails set; the few larger,
who, once in, are careless about coming out again,
fight with topsails 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,â€
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 ?â€
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!
eure of his foe leaps up upon the poop-railing.—
ad fi
mail-cl;
9
all
The ti
Chap. xxxi. p. 429.
THE GREAT ARMADA, 429
“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 ashot! 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 visor,—
“At your service, sir! whosoever you may be.â€
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.â€
“You are welcome to come on board me, sir,â€
answers the Spaniard in a clear, quiet tone: “bring-
ing with you this answer, that you lie in your throat ;â€
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
430 THE GREAT ARMADA,
name Sefior, 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.â€
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 visor,—
“For that word, sirrah, you hang at my yard-
arm, if Saint Mary gives me grace.â€
“See that your halter be a silken one, then,â€
laughed Amyas, “for I am just dubbed knight.â€
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; itis the
THE GREAT ARMADA. 431
battle of the thresher and the whale; the aa 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 a-head. “The San Matthew has
had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for a
digestive to it.â€
“T thank your Lordship: but this is my private
quarrel, of which I spoke. But if your Lordship
could lend me powder—â€
“Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every
other gentleman in the fleet.â€
A puff of wind clears away the sulphureous 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 pour-
ing 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 gentle-
men on board Medina’s ship, went blundering miser-
ably into the hungry mouths of Captain Peter Vander-
432 THE GREAT ARMADA.
duess 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.â€
But in the meanwhile, long ere the sun had set,
comes down the darkness of the thunder-storm, at-
tracted, 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.â€
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,
THE GREAT ARMADA. 433
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 ?â€
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 owt 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 harass-
ing.
“Good-bye to Seymour,†says Cary, “if he is caught
between them and Parma’s flotilla. They are going
to Dunkirk.â€
“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.â€
VOL. II, 2F W. H,
434 THE GREAT ARMADA.
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 main
sail! the villain means to run.â€
“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 press-
ing downward towards the Straits again. The Invin-
cible 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 Nune 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 !â€
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.
THE GREAT ARMADA. 435
“They will be all ashore on Zealand before the
afternoon,†murmured Amyas; “and I have lost my
labour! 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.â€
“Could we not borrow powder from Drake there ?â€
_ “Took at the sea, sir!â€
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 !â€
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
436 THE GREAT ARMADA.
the devil arises in full roar to drag Dr. Faustus for
ever 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 colours
flying ; and, if possible, to lull his enemies into sup-
posing 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 absolutism 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, 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. Never-
theless, 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
THE GREAT ARMADA. 437
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 come, by gradual decay, petty dis-
aster, and mistake; till the snow-mountain, instead
of being blown tragically and heroically to atoms,
melts helplessly and pitiably away.
Il, 2F2
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.â€
The Tempest.
YES, it is over; and the great Armada is vanquished.
It is lulled for a while, the everlasting war which is
in heaven, the battle of Iran and Turan, of the child-
ren 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 judg-
ment 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,
HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA, 439
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 pin-prick. 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 ;â€
to be, indeed, the seed of the Church, and a germ of
new life, liberty, and civilisation, 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-dis-
covered 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-pean of North
America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands,
of free commerce and free colonisation over the whole
earth.
“There was in England, by the commandment of
cher Majesty,†says Van Meteran ; “and likewise in
Il, 2F3
440 HOW AMYAS THREW
the United Provinces, by the direction of the States,
a solemn festival day publicly appointed, wherein all
persons were solemnly enjoined to resort unto y°®
Church, and there to render thanks and praises unto
God, and y° preachers were commanded to exhort
y° 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
y° ancient Romans, rode into London in Triumph, in
regard of her own and her subjects’ glorious deliver-
ance. For being attended upon very solemnly by all
y° 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 y° said Cathedral Church of St. Paul,
out of y* which y° Ensigns and Colours of y* vanquished
Spaniards hung displayed. And all y° Citizens of
London, in their liveries, stood on either side y® street,
by their several Companies, with their ensigns and
banners, and the streets were hanged on both sides
with blue Cloth, which, together with y° aforesaid
banners, yielded a very stately and gallant prospect.
Her Majestie being entered into y® 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
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 44]
voice she most Christianly exhorted y°® people to do
y* same ; whereunto y* people, with a loud acclamation,
wished her a most long and happy life to y® confusion
of her foes.â€
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 eich heralds
round the Pole the midnight sun.
Their water is failing; the cattle must go over-
board ; 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.â€
For now comes up from the Atlantic, gale on gale ;
and few of that hapless remnant reached the shores
of Spain.
449 HOW AMYAS THREW
And where are Amyas and the Vengeance all this
while 2
At the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, the English
flect, 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
nothern 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 reach Harwich port,
and there provide themselves of victuals and ammu-
nition,†in case the Spaniard should return: but there
is no need for that caution. Parma, indeed, who can-
not believe that the idol at Halle, after all his com-
pliments 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.â€
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,
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 443
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 honour) the honour of having never left the
chase as long as there was a Spanish flag in English
seas.â€
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,
444 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 civilised, 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
Raghery, 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 mainyacrd ;
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
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA, 445
Bay, before a heavy westerly gale, and the Sta. Catha-
rina 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
446 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 vapour 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 over-
head 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 some-
thing 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.â€
“So much the better,†said Amyas. “It may roar
till it splits the heavens, if it does but let me get my
work done.â€
“Fle’s not far off, I warrant,†said Cary. . “One
lift of the cloud, and we should see him.â€
“To windward of us, as likely as not,†said Amyas.
IIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 447
“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 melan-
choly 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 !â€
“The Lord have mercy on us,†cried John Brimble-
combe. ‘What have you said?â€
“What is that to you, sir? There, they are piping
to dinner. Go down. I shall not come.â€
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. J 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
448 HOW AMYAS .THREW
Thou Thy servant depart in peace,’ even if it were
the lightning which was sent to fetch me.â€
“But, master Yeo, a sudden death ?â€
“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 !â€
“Flere 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 ?â€
“Running up Channel by this time, sir.â€
“What matters the tide?†said Amyas, devouring
the ship with terrible and cold blue eyes. ‘“Can’t we
get at her?â€
“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.â€
“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.
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 449
“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.â€
“No. Iam not Amyas Leigh. Iam 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?â€
“The Bible says so.â€
“Tf my cause were not a just one, I should fancy
I had a devilin me. My throat and heart are as hot
as the pit. Would to God it were done, for done it
must be! Now go.â€
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 aud then a distant mutter shook the air to west-
ward. 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.
VOL, IL. 26 W. H,
450 HOW AMYAS THREW
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.â€
“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? IfI thought that He—
There comes the thunder at last !â€
And as he spoke an angry growl from the west-
ward 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 !â€
“astward-ho never brought us luck,†said Jack
in an under-tone 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.â€
“And there the storm, too.â€
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.â€
HIS SWORD INTO. THE SEA. 451
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 2â€
“No. Hold on every stitch,†said Amyas. “Give
me the helm, man. Boatswain, pipe away to clear
for fight.â€
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.â€
“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.â€
“There! he has put his helm down. I wonder if
he sees land?â€
“He is like a March hare beat out of his country,â€
said Cary, “and don’t know whither to run next.â€
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 un-
452 HOW AMYAS THREW
willingly 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 one flat grey
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 light-
ning 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 e
“T must have some one, and who better than you?
Can you see the chase ?â€
No; she was wrapped in the gray whirlwind.
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 453
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 hisown. The squall blew fiercer
and fiercer, the rain poured heavier and heavier.
Where was the Spaniard ?
“Tf he has laid-to, we may overshoot him, sir !â€
“Tf 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 !â€
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?â€
“Range alongside, if it blow live imps and witches,
and try our luck once more. Pah! how this lightning
dazzles !â€
On they swept, gaining fast on the Spaniard.
“Call the men up, and to quarters; the rain will
be over in ten minutes.â€
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!â€
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 acannon. What matter?
454 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 ?â€
It might be anything for thirty miles.
“Lundy!†said Yeo. “The southend! I see the
head of thé 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 towards 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.â€
“Shame!†cried Amyas, hurling his sword far into the sea.—
Chap. xxxii. p. 455.
On
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 45
“Yes!†shouted Amyas in his frenzy ; “but he
will not !â€
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, plung-
ing 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 !â€
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 2
and behind, the black, black night.
A whisper, a rustling close beside him, and Brimble-
combe’s voice said softly,—
“Give him more wine, Will; his eyes are open-
ing.â€
456 HOW AMYAS THREW
“Hey day?†said Amyas faintly, “not past the
Shutter yet! How long she hangs in the wind !â€
“We are long past the Shutter, Sir Amyas,†said
Brimblecombe.
“Are you mad? Cannot I trust my own eyes 2â€
There was no answer for awhile.
“We are past the Shutter, indeed,†said Cary
very gently, “and lying in the cove at Lundy.â€
“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 ?â€
“Oh, Sir Amyas Leigh, dear Sir Amyas Leigh,â€
blubbered poor Jack, “put out your hand, and feel
where you are, and pray the Lord to forgive you for
your wilfulness !â€
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?â€
“In your cabin, Amyas,†said Cary.
“What? And where is Yeo?â€
“Yeo is gone where he longed to go, and as he
longed to go. The same flash which struck you down,
struck him dead.â€
“Dead? Lightning? Any more hurt? I must go
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 457
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, Iam blind! blind! blind!†And writh-
ing 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 humours, and his liver’s
458 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 a while, ‘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.â€
The surgeon shook his head at the notion of
moving him: but Amyas was peremptory.
“T am captain still, Tom Surgeon, and will sail for
the Indies, if I choose. Will Cary, Jack Brimble-
combe, will you obey a blind general ?â€
“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.â€
And he rose firmly to his feet, and held out his
hands for theirs.
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 459
“Let him have his humour,†whispered Cary.
“Tt may be the working off of his madness.â€
“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.â€
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 !â€
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.â€
Jack gave a murmur, and half-stopped, as a fright-
ful suspicion crossed him.
“That is a dangerous place !â€
“What of that?†said Amyas, who pause 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.â€
So slowly, and painfully, they went on, while
Amyas murmured to himself,—
“No, no other place will suit; I can see all thence.â€
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,
460 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 iron-
bound 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 ;â€
while Amyas, a proud smile upon his lips, stood
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 461
breasting that genial stream of airy wine with swell-
ing 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. “TI 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 for ever! God’s
will be done!†i
“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 1?â€
“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.â€
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
462 HOW AMYAS THREW
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 wasa
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?â€
“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 !â€
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,
‘They retired a little space and watched him.—Chap. xxxii. p. 462.
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 463
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.â€
“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.â€
“Have I? Ihave 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!â€
His guides heard with surprise this new cheer-
fulness.
“Thank God, sir, that your heart is so light
already,†said good Jack; “it makes me feel quite
upraised myself, like.â€
“T 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.â€
“You do not repent of fighting the Spaniards ?â€
“Not I: but of hating even the worst of them.
Listen to me, Will and Jack. If that man wronged
464 HOW AMYAS THREW
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
for ever.†_
“Made it up?â€
“Made it up, thank God. But Iam weary. Set
me down awhile, and I will tell you how it befell.â€
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 Carraccas, and the Silla, and the house
beneath it where she lived. And I saw him walking
with her, on the barbecu, 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
HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA. 465
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.â€
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
vockling, 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
ther, Sefiors 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, Sefior; it is time
to be friends once more. My wife and your brother
have forgiven me; so your honour takes no stain.’
And I answered, ‘We are friends, Don Guzman ; God
has judged our quarrel, and not we.’ Then he said,
‘[ sinned, and I am punished.’ And I said, ‘And,
Sefior, soam I.’ Then he held out his hand to me,
Cary; and I stooped to take it, and awoke.â€
_ He ceased : and they looked in his face again. It
VOL. II. 24H W. UL
466 HOW AMYAS THREW HIS SWORD INTO THE SEA.
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.
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.â€
Elizabethan Ballad.
Ir 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 Brimble-
combe 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.
on 2H2
468 HOW AMYAS
“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.â€
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 half-way 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 honour 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.
LET THE APPLE FALL. 469
“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 !â€
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 wind-swept 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
1 203
470 HOW AMYAS
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 counsel, 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 a