"No word of this has reached me. A score and a half of men against that armada? It seems, sir, that you are speaking of an impossibility."
"There were not many left to carry word," said the envoy. "But your Excellency may recognise these seals which I have brought in my pocket? His Highness cut them from the necks of the leathern pearl bags."
The Governor started, and passed a tremulous hand before his eyes. "Yes," he said after a pause, "they are my seals."
"It was a wasteful way of collecting revenue," suggested the envoy. "Much was spilled for the little that was taken away. If his Highness came here in person to levy a loan for the kingdom——"
"He would never get here," cried the Governor violently. "Carrajo!Señor, with your own eyes you must have seen the strength of the forts!"
"It was an open advertisement, your Excellency. So was the strength of your pearl-fishing armada. But as this point of ours cannot be settled without a trial (though for myself I can unhesitatingly declare that the Prince will take the city if he attempts it) let me bring to your notice another matter which we can agree upon. If Rupert did come before this place with his fleet, you would be put to heavy expense resisting him, whether his arms were successful or no. You would lose largely in both men and munitions of war; your defences would be battered, and shot-torn; there would be burning of houses and wasting of magazines; and there would occur a paralysis of trade which only years could cure. And what would the trouble be all about? To avoid the loan of a paltry ten thousand pieces-of-eight to a needy King. Why, your Excellency, it would cost you ten times that amount if you could beat Prince Rupert off, once he made an attack; and should he get foothold in Caraccas here, you would find it cheap to purchase his retirement for a thousand times ten thousand pieces."
"You put the matter very boldly, sir."
"I am a man of business, your Excellency," said the envoy. "I prefer to put things plain."
The Governor sat moodily, with his chin in the butt of his hand; and for a while he answered nothing. At last he said, "Master Benson, this is a matter on which I must confer with my Council. I pray you give me a day or two for consideration, so that I can send a well-weighed reply to your Prince's courtesy. And in the meanwhile, if you would use my poor house, and all that it contains as your own, I should be overwhelmed by your condescension."
"Your Excellency," said the envoy, "is vastly polite. Both Master Laughan and myself are highly honoured to rest under so distinguished a roof. But you must permit us first to go round to some of the stores of the city to procure more suitable wearing apparel than these filthy rags."
"I will send one of my officers to be your guide. He," added the Governor with a sour smile, "shall provide you with the wherewithal to buy."
"I could not trespass upon your Excellency's kindness to that extent. I have no gold money to pay for my purchases, it is true. But we have in our privy purse some small store of pearls, which, at a push, will doubtless serve as currency."
Don Jaime grinned like a man in pain.
"Master Benson," said he, "you are a most provident gentleman. If you and Master Laughan will wait in this chamber for a short while longer, I will send to you a guide who shall be entirely devoted to your honoured service."
In this fashion, then, another stage of Prince Rupert's enterprise was successfully carried out, and the Governor of Caraccas, though fully alive to the unbounded impudence of the demands made upon him, was for the present, at any rate, civil and self-contained. What he might do in the future remained to be seen. He might within another day order the pair of his visitors to gaol, or death, or (still more horrid fate) hand them over to the gluttonous cruelties of the Inquisition, which spares neither rank nor sex. Or, again, he might act the prudent part, and despatch them whence they came with ten thousand pieces-of-eight, to save his splendid city from the Prince's harrying.
But in the meantime the envoy and Master Laughan dressed themselves in all the niceness and bravery which they could procure on so brief a notice, and prepared to revisit for a short time genteel society, such as they had been divorced from for so many a tempestuous month.
Now, in the household of Don Jaime de Soto, it is a safe thing to say that if Master Laughan had held command, the enterprise would not have been damaged; whilst it is a matter of history that the Prince, by his own action, completely wrecked it. Master Laughan, it is true (though being in reality a maid), would have had but small temptation, as she herself quite recognised; but the Prince, being man, must needs get enslaved in a vulgar love affair with a lady whose charms Master Laughan was quite at a loss to discover.
To be precise, this Lady of Destruction was that very Donna Clotilde, the niece of the Governor, of whom they had heard before; and for those that care for the Spaniards' appearance, she certainly had some claim to comely looks. Indeed, Prince Rupert never tired of extolling her beauty; and it may as well be owned here, at once, that the secretary, who in secret loved his Highness madly herself, was torn with horrid jealousness. But the Prince, of course, knew naught about this, scoffed at all warnings, and in his masquerade of "Master Thomas Benson" pressed his suit with fire and diligence. The two days for the consideration of the Governor's reply lengthened out to four, and four to a week; and when the poor secretary dared now and again to hint that duty required a settlement of the business, he was sharply bidden to hold his pedant's tongue. And so the affair progressed.
Their entertainment was not lavish. The Governor of Caraccas was too wily a fellow to make a parade of his wealth before so dangerous an envoy. But the society was certainly urbane and pleasing after that of shipboard and the buccaneers; and the old Spaniard, from behind his studied courtesies, saw plainly enough what was going on, and was content to leave Donna Clotilde to do battle with the invader on his behalf. The visitor was clearly infatuated.
Still, what Prince Rupert, a man of the utmost daring, could have seen in such a little doll of a woman, it was hard to discover. And, astonishing to relate, Donna Clotilde made no attempt to set herself right in his eyes. She openly quaked when a door was slammed, and ingenuously confessed that the sight of drawn steel would make her faint; and yet the poor secretary, who watched from afar with heart afire, could have sworn the Prince loved her, and was forced to hear his rhapsodies when they were alone, and (more cruel still) was made many times the porter of presents and the bearer of love messages.
But a fine revenge was in store, and the secretary can gloat over it to this day, though at the time it was like to have cost the pair of them their necks. The secretary in his misery had gone out into the gardens of the palace, and had lain down behind some shrubs to be alone with grief. It was night, and the place was dark but for the stars and the faint flashings of the fireflies; and presently who should come up but these two lovers, and seat themselves within earshot, and be talking before the listener could move!
"But they tell me," quoth the lady, "that your country is a place of fogs, Don Tomaso, and that the sun never shines there."
"It would be perpetual sunshine for me,querida, if you came to England," said the Prince.
"And the people fight. The mere talk of war gives me the megrims."
"Were you in England, the fighting would end. Let them but see you once, and they never would do aught to cause you pain."
"The good people, it is said, too, wear mighty uncomely clothes."
"For this many a year they have been wearying for you to come and lead their taste."
"La! Don Tomaso," said the lady, "you do flatter me. I wonder if all buccaneers are as pretty of tongue?"
"Donna Clotilde would make a dumb man find phrases to express his adoration."
"Fie,Señor! the truly dumb can never speak."
"Querida, even had I been truly dumb, I should have forced out some few speeches for you."
The lady laughed. "Then what a thousand pities,amigo, you were not dumb!"
"Your wit is bright, and I am dull. I must ask your pardon. I do not take you here."
"Why,Señor, had you been dumb, you would have said less. Being vastly glib, you have said too much."
"Still I do not see."
"It is the history of Master Thomas Benson that I speak about. You have given it me a score of times, and it does not tally: you forget the details. At one telling, Master Benson is a rude sailor, and has been bred to the sea from his youth up. Next, as a lad he fought in Continental wars, and lingered in dungeons. Now he rides at Rupert's right hand in English fights, and anon he gets swept away by his own narration, and forgets, and leads the charges himself. Now he pictures his wife settled down in a comfortable farmstead; and a minute hence he will be talking of courts as familiar as though he had never seen aught coarser. 'Twas all prettily told,amigo, and," she added, sweeping a great courtesy, "I thank you for the telling. Nay, I must crave your pardon too. I should not have slipped out theamigo; I should have done credit to my bringing up, and said 'Your Highness'!"
The Prince made no attempt to snatch back his disguise. "Señorita," he said, "whatever may be my quality, I trust I have done nothing that you should withdraw from me the title of friend."
"My Prince," she answered, "I am a Spaniard first and a woman next. You have come into my country as an enemy, and disguised as your own envoy."
"You can have a fine revenge," said Rupert lightly, "and get it easy. One word to your honoured uncle, and all further trouble will be taken from your dainty hands. And I doubt not," he added, with a shrug, "that within the hour all further thought will be chopped from my shoulders."
From behind the shrubs, the secretary could hear the lady shudder.
"I would rather compound the matter with your Highness, if it could be done."
"For myself," said the Prince, "in losing your esteem I lose all that is worth caring about."
"You have not lost it," she cried—"you have not. But what you were asking is a thing impossible. Princes must not marry maidens of rank as low as mine."
"Must not!" quoth Rupert blackly. "Who shall prevent it? I am a strong man, and myself make laws for myself. Who will prevent it?"
"I," she murmured; "because of—how did your Highness word it?—esteem, yes, because of my great and burning esteem for you."
And at that (to the poor secretary's bitter mortification) he took her tightly into his arms, and rained kisses on her upturned face. Again the war of words rose between them, but this timid little doll of a woman could be as firm as the Prince. Marry him she would not; go from Caraccas she would not; betray the Prince (as in his madness he besought) she would not; and yet she demanded one thing of him—a costly enough keepsake. He was to leave as he had come, a poor man in a single ship; he was to forego all pretences to the ransom; and he was to give his word, as a chivalrous gentleman, to jettison all ideas of harrying the place and helping himself to its treasures.
"I am a woman," she sobbed, "that loves your Highness dearly. But I am a Spaniard who loves her country more."
"And I," said he, "can continue to love such a true lady, where I should have lightly forgotten a traitor.Querida," he said, "I know your will about this matter, and I know my own: neither will bend. I shall go away in an empty ship as I came, and never shall I come to seek you here again. But I shall pray to God to bring us together in some other place, and till that day comes I will never call any woman wife."
"And hear me," she said. "I swear also——"
But he closed her lips. "No," he whispered: "I will not have any promise of you,querida. Woman are placed different from men, and policies may turn on giving their hands in marriage. I would not have you forced to wed, and then always be pestered by remembering an unfulfillable vow. I would rather have you free, and then, if God wills, we shall come together some day and marry; and if not, we shall stay forever apart."
"Yet I will——"
"No," he pleaded, "do not give me your pledge in return, or else you will send me away still more unhappy."
And then, bareheaded, he knelt and kissed her fingers—he that had a moment before been kissing her so madly on the lips!—and then with stately courtesy he led her back into the palace. He and she were in turns closeted with the Governor that night, and the next morning an escort with covered litters borne of four paraded in the palacepatio.
The Prince gave no sign of what had happened: he was debonair as a man could be; and he was "Master Thomas Benson" still. He made his adieux as though he were a favoured ambassador taking leave of the court of a king, and he and Master Laughan entered the litters. A trumpet sounded, and the bearers and the escort stepped out across the pavement. A window-shutter opened, and a slender arm stretched out fluttering a dainty kerchief, and then the litters passed out to the glaring street beyond, and the episode was over.
Down they went by the way they had come up, past the forts, and over the drawbridges of the gorge to La Guayra, the port; and on the mole a galley with slaves was in waiting to take them out to the little brigantine. But the envoy asked for another half-hour of delay.
"I have a small outstanding account which it would please me to close," said he, "before leaving your very desirable town;" and asked that the captain of the port might be notified of his presence.
The fellow came up, nothing loath, and saw some very pretty swordsmanship before he was run through the shoulder; and then, distributing a handsome largess of pearls to the escort who had brought them down, the envoy and Master Laughan were rowed off to their little brigantine, and so once more to sea, and further adventuring.
The Prince was thoughtful and full of sighs; but the humble secretary thought that the perilous sea had never before looked so friendly and pleasant.
MASTER LAUGHAN ENDEAVOURED TO OUTDO THEM ALL IN DESPERATION AND VALOURMASTER LAUGHAN ENDEAVOURED TO OUTDOTHEM ALL IN DESPERATION AND VALOUR
Now what follows must I think be taken as direct proof that Providence concerns itself with extra diligence on behalf of great gentlemen who have the birth and parts of Prince Rupert.
No prospects could have been blacker than ours when we set sail again in the little brigantine from La Guayra. Of food we were well-nigh destitute; the little water remaining to us stank; the vessel herself had grown even still more leaky through straining at her anchor amongst the rough seas of the roadstead; and (as though out of sheer aggravation) one of the black slaves had died, leaving only three to carry on the necessary work.
Than bailing water out of a leaky vessel's bilges there is no labour more detestably menial; but a Prince of birth can be drowned by a ship swamping beneath him as glibly as a common sailor-man; and so as the remaining blacks showed clear signs of exhaustion, Rupert and his humble secretary had to take their turn at this occupation, and ply their utensils too with lusty vigour. It was extraordinary how fluent were the leaks. "They say that witches do sea-travelling in baskets," said Prince Rupert once. "I wish we had one aboard here to teach us the trick, if indeed this basket is not too large-meshed for a witch's skill."
His secretary looked at the dim line of the coast. "Anything would be better than staying here to be drowned like puppies under a bucket. It tears me to think that your Highness's dear life should be in this horrid danger."
"My dear life has been in worse case many a time when it was more pleasant to me, lad. And now that it is soured somewhat through thought of a certain lady, why, there you have all the more reason why it will not be cut short. I quite agree with you that there is a strong need that we should find soon a scheme to better our position; but at present I can think of none; and as for taking another turn on the shore yonder, why, that I flatly refuse to think about. I have no appetite for plunging about those pestiferous mangrove swamps till the Spaniards starve us out, and take us by sheer numbers and strength. In fact, I do not want to appear next before the Governor of Caraccas as a prisoner, Master Stephen. You will doubtless appreciate many of my reasons."
And there the poor secretary, being in truth a maid herself, and passionately enamoured of his Highness, turned away and faced the glaring sea, lest the jealousy that consumed her might be seen written upon her face. Though what Rupert could see in that creature puzzles her even to this day.
But neither Prince Rupert nor Master Laughan, his secretary, could afford to keep their thoughts entirely on this Donna Clotilde whom they had left behind them still in the safe keeping of her uncle the Governor of Caraccas. Their present discomforts went far to wean them from the memory of what had immediately passed. Their hunger and thirst grew upon them; their limbs ached with the incessant toil of keeping the crazy vessel afloat; an intolerable tropic sun scorched them from overhead; and, as though their case was obviously desperate even to the fish of the sea, three great sharks swam after the little brigantine in convoy. Moreover, one of the blacks began to show signs of delirium, and had to be confined with leg-irons so that he should not leap over-side, and lose them his services.
For three days this miserable voyage acquired to itself new miseries, and yet no plan came to the voyagers for lightening their case. In fine (and it is hard for the secretary to say such a thing about her revered patron), Prince Rupert lost his reckoning, and owned as much. He was at the best an inaccurate navigator, being brought up to nobler trades. And so there they were careering through a hot sun-scorched sea, with no land in sight, and the only hope remaining to them that if they kept at it long enough, they would, if they did not starve or drown first, fetch up somewhere in the long run.
"We are true buccaneers now, lad," said Rupert lightly, "for viler navigators and more desperate blades never sailed the Caribbean. My courage would be equal to attacking a caravel single-handed now—especially if my nose told me he had a meal preparing in his cook house."
As the sun lowered on that fourth day of their travel, a fog bank lifted out of the ocean ahead, a common enough sight in those unwholesome seas of the New World, and a breeding place for the calentura and other disorders. There is nothing in this you will say worthy of being commented upon in these memoirs; but when dark at last fell with all its tropical suddenness, this fog lit up with a glow, and as they drove nearer to it in their voyage, this glow seemed to collect and concentrate upon a centre.
At first they had taken the appearance for some trick of the sun which in these regions often leaves a reflection in the Eastern sky that lingers long after its setting; but this glow endured too long, and moreover it grew more concentrated, and increased in brightness; and so there came to the Secretary's lips a suggestion that some island lay ahead, and that its savannahs had been fired by buccaneers to drive the game into their snares. "There may be a wholesome meal close ahead of us," said the secretary, "and afterwards, your Highness' charm will surely enlist some of these rude hunters into your service. It is my humble suggestion that Providence evidently intends us to find profit presently from some adventure ashore."
"That may be," said Rupert. "But my own idea is that shore's as far off as ever, and that just now we're staring at somebody's ship ablaze. Look now; if we bale a little harder, we may dare to give this basket of ours a few square yards more sail, and so come up with her all the quicker."
So they set the blacks to loose and hoist the two topsails, and sheet them home, and then took it by turns to assist the tired creatures at their intolerable baling.
The Secretary will confess to have experienced a pang when the next half-hour's sailing proved His Highness to be right. On land once more, she could have shown a stout manner to whatever adventure or hardship lay before them. But land seemingly lay as far off as ever; indeed they did not even know its whereabouts; and here on this unstable sea poor Master Stephen was every minute forced violently to drag back her courage, lest it should slip from her shuddering breast and be overboard beyond reclaim. Indeed only the all-mastering love she bore for this adorable hero kept her from disgracing the livery of her borrowed manhood.
But Rupert's courage was in no way dulled; indeed matters that would have daunted all other men (let alone maids) always heartened that great soldier; and, besides, with his infinite strategy he saw here ahead of him an opportunity for earning monies for his master the King at the Hague, whom he was so diligently endeavouring to serve. From the moment of making sure that the glow came from a burning ship, he was all of a fidget to make the brigantine move faster; and indeed his haste was natural, for as they drew more near, and the wind slackened, it seemed likely that the ship would burn to the water's edge and sink before he could come up and drive his bargain with her.
They could see the vessel plainly now, a tidy-sized pink (or brig, to give her the newer name) with her bolt-sprit a mere flag of fire, her foremast already over the side, and the forepart of her hull little better than a bonfire of flames. The men upon her stood out black against the blaze which they fought so vehemently to subdue. They were massed for the most part in a mob on her aftercastle and as they drew nearer, Prince Rupert could see others standing on stages slung over the side, passing up water to quench the flames in every conceivable shape of pitcher, from ale-jacks to mess-kids.
It cannot be said that the reckless fellows showed any outward fear for the horrid death that was already beginning to scorch them. They were chanting a psalm when the brigantine first drove within earshot; but apparently thinking they had done enough for their souls with this exercise, they presently set up some ribald drinking song which had acquired a dirty popularity in the taverns of Tortuga, and bawled it out full-lunged to the accompaniment of water hisses and flame-roar.
With the glare of the fire dazzling their eyes, and the occupation of fighting it filling their minds, they did not see the brigantine till she sailed up through their smoke and rounded up head to wind just beyond pistol-shot; and when they did make the discovery, their behaviour was none too civil. Even had there been any doubt about their being French and English buccaneers, they proved it very plainly now. Spaniards would have shown panic and pleaded for their lives with threats and promises: these fellows were for taking what they wanted by sheer dash and impudence.
"Just the packet we want, lads," roared the great rude creature who commanded her. "She's only a Jack-Spaniard, and'll be taken as easy as skinning a bull. Strip and swim for her. We'll come back and salve our plunder afterwards."—Upon which they all began to doff their draggled finery with astonishing haste.
But Rupert stood up in the brigantine's rigging and called sharply for them to wait a moment and hear him. Upon which, catching the sound of his English words, they stopped their bawling and listened.
"I am willing to give you passage, gentlemen, upon reasonable conditions. But my conditions I must have: you will understand I am no common carrier."
The tall man who had spoken before gave voice. "You seem to talk very big, you in your small ship. I am Captain Wick. Who the devil are you?"
Prince Rupert louted low. "I fear you will not know my poor name sir, though at home in England and Europe it has been heard some few times. There they call me Rupert Palatine."
The tall man whistled. "You'll be the Captain that pawned his ships to old Skin-the-Pike in Tortuga?"
"Monsieur D'Ogeron, the Governor, held some cavaliers who were my very dear friends, and no other way showed itself of ransoming them. Besides, I wanted their swords for my enterprises."
"Well, gratitude's no crime, though there's many in these pagan seas thinks it first cousin to foolishness. No, I can't say I think any the worse of you, Captain Rupert, for what you have done."
"Sir," said the Prince, "your approval overwhelms me."
"Don't mention it," said Captain Wick, "and don't let us waste any more time in speeches. This perch here is getting hot. Take us off, like a decent man, and you have my word for it you shall be no loser. We gutted a fat Spaniard yesterday—a Seville ship he was, new out of Maracaibo—and after the fight, all our hands got so drunk, he had the ingratitude to slip away; and as we found ourselves afire in the forehold, we'd no time just then to set about rechasing him. I'll make free to own the fire was beginning to bother us when you came up."
"It has a solid look about it just now," said Rupert, and he had to shout, for the roar of the devouring flames overtopped all quieter voice. "And so as a business man yourself you will be ready to pay all the higher for your conveyance elsewhere. It is well we should get these ungenteel matters of commerce settled first. It would put an unpleasant finish on our voyaging together if bad blood rose between us when the hour came for settling the bill for passages."
Whereupon Captain Wick broke out into some very fierce and wrathful language.
But Prince Rupert preserved an admirable temper. "Sir," he said, "I am new to this trade of passenger-carrying, and I trust I have too much niceness to make a commencement with a bevy of unwilling guests. Let me call to your mind that I am offering no compulsion. If you do not like my terms, I will draw off and continue my proper voyage, and as for you—why, you, sir, and your merry gentlemen can continue to tend your fire."
It was clear that Captain Wick had fine appetite for another outburst of words and temper; but the growing heat of the flames behind was every moment worse to be borne, and so with a hard effort he kept his tongue civil. "Well," he said, "what are your terms?"
"I do not want, sir, to drive too hard a bargain. I will not take more than you can offer."
"Meaning all we have? That's gluttonous enough, anyway."
"I did not come out to these amusing seas merely to study philosophy and refinement."
"That I'll be sworn you didn't. You might be a common buccaneer like me, with a matelot ashore to provide for, from the keenness you show."
"Why there, sir," said Rupert, "you have hit off my condition in a phrase. I was formally and solemnly adopted into your desirable Brotherhood after strict examination and full trial of my poor abilities, and I have a good camerade now meat-hunting ashore in Hispaniola. Even if I were disposed to forego my own advantage, I could not remain loyal to him and let this chance of earning moneys slip by me. It is a vital condition of our partnership that we share and share alike, and that each should do his best for his matelot."
"You need not remind an old buccaneer of the first principle of the Brotherhood. How do they name your matelot?"
"Simpson. He's a finely accurate shot."
"A man well freckled with pock-markings?"
"He is so distinguished."
"Simpson and I have been shipmates. Well, I'll have no hand in defrauding Simpson—especially as I've small choice in the matter. But if the chance comes my way for driving another hard bargain, just you look to yourself, Captain Rupert."
"Sir," said the Prince, "I've done very little else these some years. Do you answer for your crew standing honourably by the conditions?"
"You shall swear each fellow for yourself when they come aboard. Man, make haste and bring that cockle-shell of yours athwart our stern. The bacon is beginning to frizzle on us already, and presently some of us will be cooked alive. I must say you make a rather poor show of your hospitality."
"You will not blame me presently, sir. As it is you will enjoy the fare here. Had you come from anything short of desperation, I fear you would have turned up your honoured noses at its roughness."
The brigantine's head was canted with the sprit-sail till she gathered way again, and she was so manoeuvred that Master Stephen Laughan, who was standing on the forward castle, caught a rope which was hove to him, and made it fast to one of the knightheads. Singly the buccaneers made their way down this from the high poop which towered above, each carrying a bag filled with the more valuable of the Spaniard's plunder to pay his passage, and each, as he dropped foot on the deck, was made to swear a most comprehensive obedience. A Bible, a crucifix and a naked blade were set ready, and the oath was taken on all three, so that whether the man was of the Reformed Religion, or Papist, or confessed no creed at all, one or other of the oaths was bound to pledge him, and so there would be no wriggling out through this very common bye-way.
"By the Lord!" said Captain Wick, who was the last to come on board. "By the Lord, if formalities can make sound business, you should be in a fair way towards storing a fortune. By your leave I'll cast off this rope from the knighthead here and we'll get your cock-boat under way. My old ship is pretty well a-fire just now, and it's on the cards my drunken rascals were not very thorough when they set to drown the powder. The kegs were not all easy to get at in the magazine."
"After your handsome behaviour," said Prince Rupert with a bow, "the least I can do is to put my poor ship entirely at your present disposal. You may set your crew to work her (for I will own ingenuously that mine are somewhat unskilled), and you may navigate her where you choose. But if I might venture to suggest, I should say that the sooner you could bring up with some land, or with some desirable ship of the Spaniards, the pleasanter it would be for all of us."
Captain Wick stared. "You have a rum way of putting things," he said. "But let's go to your cabin, and talk it out over a cup of wine. I've a throat that's full of sand."
"Why," said Rupert smiling, "I'm afraid the cabin floor will be a-slop with water, as when we pressed her with sail so as to come down to you the quicker, the leaks rather gained on us."
"By the Lord!" cried Wick, fairly startled, "she feels sodden enough under the feet now you call attention to it. Why, your lower deck ports are well-nigh awash."
"Oh, I gave the brigantine no certificate for seaworthiness, when I asked you to honour us with your presence."
"Well, you're a cool one, anyway," said Wick, and gave sharp orders to his men to take a spell at the baling.—"But sink or swim, that doesn't alter my thirst, and if we can't wash our necks politely seated in the cabin, why, bid one of your blacks bring aft the wine on to the poop, and we'll drink to our better acquaintance there."
"I fear, sir," said Prince Rupert, still with his best manner, "that you will think me most cursedly remiss, but our provisioning has been plaguely ill done, and there's not a drop of wine on board."
Captain Wick stared still more, and then, as a thought struck him, he went to the scuttle-butt and took a sample from the dipper. "And your water stinks!" he spluttered. "Faugh! do you keep ducks in your casks? Man, tell me squarely, what entertainment is it that you have asked us to?"
"Lean enough, I fear, but I have no wish that it should endure longer than is absolutely needful. As a buccaneer, sir, you are my senior, and I bow to your experience, but as a mere soldier, I should say that the strategy indicated is to go to the nearest place where provisions are stored whether it is afloat or ashore, and procure them in the handiest way which occurs to us."
Captain Wick slapped his thigh. "Well," he said, "this is the maddest turn-out! You've neither meat, wood, nor water; you've a little old ship that leaks like a fishing net; you've no force——"
"Ah, pardon me there, sir. You see before you two very good swords, who would be quite pleased to parade themselves against any other two you can put against them."
"Give it if you like, you've an army of two, yourself and this slim youngster here. You must have left a very ugly place behind you to have sailed out so blithely into this fix."
"In honest truth we did. But being here, sir, and having you and your excellent friends as companions, I repeat that the shrewdest thing at present seems to me that we should sail with as much canvas as we can carry towards the nearest meal. Come, Captain Wick, I'm still but raw in these seas, and you are likely to know far more where the good things are stowed. What do you say? Are we to get ashore and hunt bullocks? Or is there some convenient town to sack, or some castle to ransom? Or can you guarantee that we shall find a Spaniard on the sea, and get our next dinner from him before we are absolutely starving?"
Captain Wick leaned up against the bulwarks and laughed. "This is like the old hard, wicked times once more, when buccaneers sailed cheerfully against an armada in a canoe—and sometimes took it. It gives me a thrill to be desperate again. I oughtn't to be merry, I know, but spit me if I can help it. I've lost my ship, I've been robbed of my lawful plundery, I'm out of the frying-pan into the fishing-net, but by the Lord, there's something too humorous about the whole adventure to let one work up a proper pitch of anger."—His face sobered with a sudden pucker of recollection.—"Rupert," he repeated, "Captain Rupert. Isn't it Prince Rupert I should have said?"
"So I am more usually known."
Captain Wick changed his manner. He lugged off his feathered hat and made a great bow. "My lord," he said, "you must excuse these manners I've been showing you. At first I thought you were a rogue, and then I thought you were a madman, and then I judged you were a fool, but I never guessed you were a born prince and there's the truth of it. I was only a common seaman before the mast before I drifted out to these seas of the New World, and earned distinction, and so at home I was not in a position to meet Princes, and here there are none to come across. But believe me, my lord, it gives me great pleasure now to make your acquaintance, and devil take the expense. Indeed I don't grudge the expense: Princes out here will want to make their bit like other men."
The secretary, who stood near, looked for an explosion of his Highness' anger, for there were times when Prince Rupert could defend his dignity with great niceness and punctilio. For it was in Master Laughan's mind that this Wick was merely mocking her patron, since of all these rude buccaneers they had come across so far in the New World, they had not met one who showed a particle of reverence for a great name and exalted birth for their own sakes. But Prince Rupert, with his usual fine discernment, saw otherwise; indeed he understood in a flash that the man was dazzled at finding himself the guest of one who carried so illustrious a name: and he showed him some very pretty and graceful condescensions.
The secretary, being by this time so thoroughly wearied out that her eyes would keep open no longer, heard dully the rumble of their talk for awhile, and then dropped off to sleep where she was on the bare deck, but not before a new course had been set, and sharp orders given for the re-trimming of tacks and sheets. The buccaneers, it appears, would have waked her to take a spell at the baling, being rude brutal fellows with but little sympathy for gentility and a slim figure; but the Prince so pleasantly asked them to desist, at the same time speaking so handsomely of the secretary's youth and previous labours, that of their uncouth condescension Stephen was permitted to further enjoy plank bed undisturbed.
I am free to confess that the meeting with Captain Wick and his men, let alone from the sums earned as their passage money, was indeed fortunate from another respect. That Prince Rupert had high military genius, no one who reads these memoirs, and the other histories specially written upon his person, will for a moment deny. But the fact cannot be got over that if the brigantine had stuck to her original course, his Highness and the others on her would have starved, if indeed they had not drowned first. For the nearest land (if indeed they did not miss it) was distant a week's sail that way, and the seas in between practically desert. But this Captain Wick, if rude, had at least local knowledge and no particular appetite for starvation, and so by his hint the brigantine was headed for Curassou, which island it appeared was conveniently close at hand.
Let no reader think that in owning this, Master Stephen Laughan wavers for one instant in loyalty to Prince Rupert, and profound admiration for his wonderful powers. But the fact is the island was out of sight below an horizon, and guessing at an island's position, when indeed you have never before heard of its existence, is but dangerous seamanship.
As Wick himself owned the place had small enough fame. It had neither mines nor pearl-fisheries; the Spaniards did naught but gather salt there; and as this commodity would not attract buccaneers, who liked more profitable valuables for their purses, there were no fortifications to protect the works or the labourers.
"But, your worship," said Captain Wick, "at present we need comestibles more than cash, and I take it that these fellows on Curassou, humble though they may be, must have some sort of food on hand to stow in their bellies. And besides, salt-making should be one of the thirstiest trades imaginable, and there you see that drink, and much drink, is clearly indicated." And in fine this prophecy came very near to the truth. In the harbour of the island they found two vessels of the salt gatherers and a well-stored village ashore all practically undefended, and these they took without opposition.
At this point though the very nasty customs of the buccaneers nearly caused a breach—and indeed would have brought about complete severance of the parties if the secretary had had the choice. For the rude fellows, after their usual habit, when the materials for debauch were ready to their hands, had not the smallest mood to go abroad for further earning, and in this Captain Wick (that was none too sober himself) to all practical purposes gave them his countenance.
"Master Prince," he hiccoughed solemnly. "I am your most obedient servant to command, but you mustn't ask me to make water run up hill, or to cause handy liquor to cease from running down a thirsty buccaneer's gullet. They are common fellows, common as dirt every one of them, and they haven't the gentility and niceness that is natural to you and me. And moreover, as a buccaneer's life is often a short one, he strives to make it as merry as may be. Besides as you are one of the brotherhood yourself, you ought to fall in with the custom. I'm sure Simpson, your matelot, would not be pleased to see you deny yourself. Come, my lord, what do you say, if you and me, that are their superiors, condescend a little and go and take a turn down yonder ourselves?"
The Prince very civilly declined, but still this Wick must needs persuade him further.
"Of course it's not what me and your lordship are accustomed to, but there's entertainment in it. A buccaneer when he's ashore is a rarely humorous fellow. The Spaniards were asked to provide a fiddle, or some pipes, or at least a drum for harmony; but it seems they are leanly enough furnished with both talent and instruments; and so the beggars have been stood in a row, and bidden to whistle jigs as dance music. The boatswain's been appointed bandmaster, with a rope's end for baton, and I can tell you he's making a dandy orchestra."—Captain Wick fidgetted with his feet—"Oh Lord," he said, "watch 'em dancing. I just must have a turn myself. Here, Master Laughan, you're slim, and should make a most ladylike partner. Come along."
And with that he clapped an arm round the poor secretary's waist (that was like to have died with mortification) and set off into absurd capers, keeping time to the whistling, till the pair of them were brought to a stop through sheer breathlessness.
Prince Rupert (it is painful to relate) was in one of his whimsical humours, and, far from interfering, only laughed and shook with merriment. "Keep it up, Stephen, lad," cried he. "You fling a fine leg. By my faith, you dance the best maid's steps of all of them. Ho! you other blushing, bearded, lady buccaneers, mince your steps like Master Laughan."—And when the secretary came back flushed and angry to his side, and would have reproached him with a look, "Pooh! lad," said he, "you're none the worse. There's a bit too much of the pedant about you at times"—At which the poor creature tried to smile, though in truth she was but an ace off tears.
Of the two vessels of the Spaniards which they met in the harbour, one was fired, as they had no service for her, and the other careened, breamed, refitted and loaded with the brigantine's treasure and puny armament. The brigantine herself, being left unbaled for a dozen hours, quickly sank out of further mischief's ways. The orgie of the buccaneers, when one came to measure it up afterwards in the cool blood of the historian, was in reality short, for these disgusting creatures consider lavishness the highest gentility, and waste double what they use. But once the liquor casks were drained, they were ready enough to start out for the next venture.
The sun poured down upon their working with intolerable heat; the beach reeked with the lees of their spilt rum; and the fellows themselves, though they stuck manfully enough to their labours, carried swinging heads and crabbed tempers. The Spanish prisoners who were set to the more menial tasks came in for rough usage when their diligence slackened.
But at last all was ready once more for sea, and after the custom of the Brotherhood of the Coast, a meeting was held at which each man was the equal of his neighbour. They were done with one voyage, and this,ipso facto, disrated the lot of them, and forthwith they set themselves to elect officers for the next, and to decide on a cruise.
Now all who read these memoirs will at once think that with so brilliant a commander standing idle at their side, these rude fellows would at once have made humble petition to Prince Rupert that he would condescend to lead them. But I can nohow describe their uncouth rudeness more blackly than by relating that they did nothing of the kind. In fact but one name was mentioned, and that was Wick's; and they elected him with shouts, and saluted him with a ragged volley from their buccaneering-pieces. For boatswain, too, they elected the fellow who had served in that rating before. But their quartermaster had, it appeared, been killed; and as there were two rival claimants for the office with equal followings, each ready to fight for their man, Wick saved civil war by suggesting that the Prince be appointed. Here was a way out of their impasse, and they took it as such, though without any show of enthusiasm, and Rupert was gracious enough to accept their nomination. The readiness with which he could adapt himself to his companions for the moment, was a singularly lovable feature in this truly great man's character.
In general meeting also the plan of campaign was openly discussed and voted upon, all, by the rules of the Brotherhood of the Coast, having an equal say in this matter before the cruise commenced. Indeed Wick himself drew attention to this freedom of discussion, and pointed out that if anyone of the company could put skill or information into the general fund, he was bound by the laws to give it. "We Brethren of the Coast," said he, "have our phases. Ashore we have our frolics. But afloat we are all for earning. That comes first always; and though causing annoyance to the Spaniard can generally be done at one and the same time, that is not to be looked upon as a serious occupation, but only one to give relish to the other. Now for myself I feel bound to make the suggestion that we can begin our earning here at present in Curassou by charging a high rate of freight for any specie we are asked to carry."
For a moment the buccaneers did not catch his meaning. But someone shouted, "There's a riposte for our smart quartermaster," and then they all burst into roars of laughter, wagging good-humoured fingers at the Prince, and crying out that hard bargaining made good profits.
"Of course," said Rupert, "I'm with you there entirely, gentlemen. Indeed, am I not an interested party, seeing that this cruise is to be worked on shares, after the ordinary laws of the Brotherhood? But I must ingenuously confess that I do not see the merchants who will offer you even small freights to be carriers of their specie."
Upon which they laughed all the louder. "Why, you, sir," they cried, "you are our merchant. And we are the only carriers. The brigantine's sunk. But you will be dealt with quite fair. As quartermaster you will receive your due share from the common fund of what you pay in as merchant."
"Gentlemen," said Rupert pleasantly, "your schemes of finance do credit to your nimble brains. But you see in me at present a banker rather than a merchant, or perhaps I should say a bank depositor. Do you take me?"
They did not. But their faces sobered considerably. No class of men could be in company with Prince Rupert for long without gaining a high respect for his genius.—"My lord quartermaster," said Wick, "you're talking a bit too fine for these common fellows."
"Well," said Rupert, "it's a hard thing to do, gentlemen, but I must avow myself to you as a coward. Transit of goods in these seas seems so perilous and so expensive that really I have been frightened out of risking it. There's some small fortune which it may come to your memory I earned a few days back—and for half of which I am responsible to Master Simpson, my matelot in Hispaniola. Gentlemen, believe me, my nervousness about that fortune is so great that I have decided to bank it with Mother Earth in this island of Curassou. And indeed, whilst you were having your frolic with the rum casks, I found a spade, and myself put the deposit in that good banker's safekeeping. We contrived matters, Mother Earth and I, that none should steal the key."
The buccaneers bore no resentment at being further tricked. Indeed they let off their guns in compliment to their quartermaster's acuteness, and bade him now that he had taken up a new service, attend to the joint interest as cleverly as he had done before for his own.
The Prince took them pleasantly. "If appetite gives wit," said he, "I should be a clever fellow just now. There isn't a buccaneer more greedy for plunder along all the Spanish Main. And for advice, there seems to me that only one course is open to us. Here is this ship that we have put in trim. You will note that four days ago she was a mere salt-gatherer."
"We all know that."
"Assuredly. I was but marshalling my arguments. Now salt is a very vulgar commodity, but it has its merchants and dealers, and this ship will have her proper port. I do not know what's the port, or what's its armament, but according to me, brethren, it's clearly indicated that this ship's port is the point for our attack. We sail there, arriving openly and in broad daylight. There's nothing hid. We'll set her old crew (who are luckily none the worse for their whistling) to work her into anchorage in their usual clumsy fashion, and for ourselves, we'll sit genteelly down in the hold as passengers and while the time (if it please you) with the dice. Then, when the moment comes, we can walk in and take possession before they have made any preparations for our reception. Come now, brethren, how does my scheme taste to your judgments?"
"We should manage a surprise that way, my lord quartermaster," said Wick. "The question is, whether the place is worth it."
"Ah, that point," said the Prince, "must be left to Captain Wick, who is geographer to this crew."
"The truth is," said Wick, rubbing his chin, "the salt merchant belongs to Cumarebo, and it's a place I never heard that buccaneers visited."
"There must be a beginning to every kind of experience," said Stephen Laughan modestly.
"Quite so, my lad, but let me tell you your cleverness is more pert than longheaded. News always seems to get about if a town on the Main contains treasure, and Cumarebo makes its boast principally of a very vast cathedral and several barracks full of greasy priests."
"Speaking as a Protestant," said Rupert, "I don't find that Popish idols and vessels do harm to my pocket when they're melted up into currency. My master, the King, at The Hague, favours Rome I know, but I do not think he would be so undevout as to refuse a loan because it happened to come from the coffers of his own church."
"And my master," said Wick with a grin, "and that's myself, refuses deuced little that isn't too hot or too heavy to carry away. That's a good word of yours, my lord quartermaster, about the cathedral. Where there's priests there's sure to be plenty: I should have deduced that for myself."
Three or four of the buccaneers were going to make objection, but he held up his hand for silence, mentioning them civilly by name. "I know that some of you, brethren, are good Catholics, but you are in the minority, and you'll be outvoted if you force a poll. Now, don't have any megrims, and you shall easy save your consciences. You'll go with us, and you'll do your work like the rest, and afterwards, when it comes to the division, you'll take your whack of plunder like the rest. Later, you can find a reasonable priest, and buy a full dispensation for a tenth of what you have pocketed."
At which the objectors seemed very comfortably satisfied, and as all the others gave their full adherence to the scheme, they drank up what was left of the rum, fired a salvo from their buccaneering pieces to show that the plan of campaign was settled, and then got out to the ship, and so to sea.
The buccaneers considered themselves very fine gentlemen during the three days that the voyage lasted, contenting themselves merely with giving orders, and forcing the Spanish prisoners to do all labour connected with the working of the vessel. Moreover it was their conceit that music should lighten the tedium of the journey, and so the Spaniards were set again to whistle. They were men of lugubrious countenance all of them, these prisoners (as who wouldn't be in the hands of these fierce sea marauders) and the sight of their efforts at music gave continual merriment to the buccaneers. Very galling, too, the practice must have been to their Spanish pride. But they had no mercy to expect from their task-masters. Indeed they were lucky to be let off so lightly. The higher humanity has no place amongst the fierce passions which sway men in these seas of the New World. With the Spaniards, their natural cruelty and the horrid Inquisition (blasphemously named holy) practise the most dreadful tortures upon all English and French that fall alive into their hands, and so when buccaneers of these nationalities lay clutch on Spaniards, their natural rudeness at times permits them to make some very gross retaliation.
There was no starvation this voyage, but as there was no rum for orgies, the buccaneers swore that it was intolerably slow, and crowded canvas on the vessel till they were like to have whipped the masts out of her. But the reckless fellows had no appetite for caution.
When they rose the shore line of the Main, however, and presently would come in sight of the town which they hoped would yield them fortune, Captain Wick for the first time asserted his command. With jests and curses and blows he drove all down below to take up residence upon the salt in the hold out of sight, and the Spaniards who were on deck he compelled with very horrid threats into complete obedience.
"How would you take your vessel into harbour?" asked he of the poor wretch who had once been captain.
"With half the sail she spreads at present," said the fellow.
"Then trim her according to your nerves and your habit," cried Wick. "And see to it there's nothing suspicious in our entering the harbour. If an alarm spreads, my man, before it's intended, I'll set my bull-skinners below to flay the hide off you living, and then I'll take you on to the beach, and roll you in sand. Grit your teeth on that, my man, and see to it your service is as I've ordered."
Only Wick and the Prince remained on deck with a disguise of Spaniard's clothes and headgear to cover them. The secretary was thrust below with the rest, and was forced with much mortification to listen to the lewd talk of the buccaneers, and moreover to stand as a butt to their ribald jests. Oh, let any maid who thinks of following to the wars a man she ardently loves, weigh well the odious talk and treatment which she will have to pass off smilingly.
Time and again, as they passed the bar, and bore up towards the anchorage, did Wick and the Prince cry down the hatchways that those below should cease their noise, but some funny fellow would always shout back a quip or start a new song, and away the whole lot would go again, ranting and roaring in chorus. And at last it seems Wick lost patience, for he drew on the hatch-covers as an extinguisher, and left himself and the Prince alone on deck cut off with the eighteen surviving Spaniards. Still there was little fear that these would prove unruly. They had tasted too well of buccaneers' discipline already.
In the pestilent heat of that hold, above the salt, the poor secretary gasped and stifled, praying that any risks of battle might be given her in exchange for this confinement, and indeed when the time did come for skirmish, the poor creature was strung to such a pitch of distraction that she performed some deeds of bravery which even these rude buccaneers (that in truth are brave enough themselves, and not over given to praise) clapped at in admiration.
The surprise of the town, as well it might have been, was complete enough. The Spanish captain drove on past the anchorage and laid the vessel up alongside the steep mud bank of the river. A gate of the town lay close at hand just beyond the muddy foreshore, with traffic pouring in and out, and here was a most desirable place for any buccaneers to make their in-rush.
It appeared at first that the attack might be leisurely and well ordered, but one of the Spaniards on board, spurred on either by recklessness, or patriotism, or hate, or all three combined, cried out to friends ashore that the Philistines were upon them, and although he was promptly cut down by Wick for his pains, the very act put a guarantee of faith on his testimony. A shout was raised by those that did their business on the beach that the buccaneers were come, and wild panic ensued. All rushed for the gate, cumbered with whatever goods came first to hand. Too frightened to discriminate over the salvage they might be, but the greed instinct was too strong in them not to pick up some sort of burden, even though it was merely a broken crock or an empty cask. And at the heels of the mob raced Prince Rupert and Captain Wick, whilst the ship vomited yelling buccaneers through her hatch.
Those inside laboured to shut the gate, those who had not yet passed through struggled fiercely for entrance. In the rear of the fugitives was a great waggon laden with bales, and when this was just in the act of passing the doorway, Wick and the Prince came up. They were alone, for Stephen Laughan who was the first of their following to get clear of the ship, was still a hundred paces behind at the further side of the beach. And with the strong guard that was inside, the gate would have inevitably been slammed to, once the wain was drawn clear through into the street beyond.
"Hamstring the horses," panted Wick, who was near burst with running.
"No time, my Captain," said Rupert, and drew a pistol and steadied it over the crook of an elbow. Down went the off-horse to his shot, and its struggles threw the other, and there was the gate as neatly blocked as one could wish.
"Surrender," roared Wick. "Give up everything you've got, or we'll slit every throat in the town." But there was no officer in authority at the gate to give a command, and the warders and the townsfolk ran away howling through the narrow streets, each thinking first of his own greasy hide.
The pair of them stood in that gateway alone till the rest of the buccaneers came up, and by this time the bells were being rung backwards, drums and trumpets exuding their noise here and there, and all the elements in force which go to make a fine confusion. But buccaneers are not men very easy frightened, and the uproar only pointed out to them the panic of the enemy.
"Now, brethren," cried Wick, "after me at a smart run, and we'll pay a polite call on the Governor's palace. And mind, no straggling. No stopping for bits of plunder on the way. Do as I order, and I'll find you the wherewithal to get drunk for a month on end. And if any dog amongst you disobeys me," he roared, "I'll cut his liver out. Come along, my lord quartermaster," and with that they led the way at a round pace.
But presently it was clear that the troops in the place were being roused and accoutred, and though we cut our way through the first few bodies that opposed us with ease and derision, presently others began to throw up barricades and to man the houses on either side, and the musketry of these galled us shrewdly. There were not so many of us that we could afford to lose men liberally, and Prince Rupert, had he held the command, would, the secretary feels certain, have solved the difficulty by sheer fine generalship. But Wick was Captain, and Wick led the way with a bold confidence. He had no trace of an idea in which quarter the Governor's palace lay, but he thrust out his sword before him and followed it with a brazen courage.
Still at last even Wick could not but see that his small tail of men was being eaten away piece-meal at this disastrous game, and when the Prince made a suggestion, he was glad enough to follow it.
There was little enough of honour to be found in this rude street fighting and (it seemed) less of plunder. "I've a curiosity to see their pretty church plate," said Rupert, "before the priests can take it away into hiding. What say you, Captain, if we stroll that way now? The sights in this quarter are too commonplace to be interesting."
"It's all one to me, your grace," said Wicks, with his best bow, "and at any rate we shan't miss the way to that. What fools these churchmen are to build towers that can be seen so clear above all the rest of the houses."
Gallantly they charged in this new direction, and like furies the buccaneers fought on in their wake. There was no quarter either asked or expected, and if a man was wounded he must struggle on as best he could, or be content to be left by his friends and get despatch from the ravaged householders who followed at the heels of the fight.
It was at this point, where indeed they were most heavily pressed, and like to have been swamped by sheer weight of enemy, that Master Laughan out of sheer ill-temper at the slights these rude fellows had put upon her during their previous intercourse, endeavoured to outdo them all in desperation and valour, and indeed won several frank compliments from them which soothed her wounded feelings very pleasantly. For indeed a maid, though she be timid by nature, and need much heart-bracing before she be nerved for a fight, can do with pretty things being said about her sword play as well as other people. And so the fight continued with amazing fury till at last what were left of the buccaneers hewed their way into the great church, and so won breathing space not before it was needed.
The Prince and his secretary and a dozen men stood guard upon the door, and Wick and the rest set to work to glean their harvest. At first they found little enough, and in the exasperation of the moment a good many of the place's embellishments were badly spoiled. But presently they came upon a priest in hiding, and although the poor man at first disclaimed all knowledge of the treasure, he soon sang a different tale when the buccaneers set about sharpening his memory in their rough-and-ready fashion, though indeed he did scream very dreadfully before they induced him to tell.
But in the meanwhile Prince Rupert and his party had been doing their share towards the common weal. A great crowd of troops and citizens had been gathered in the square outside the church, and in two sudden sorties they contrived to capture some two-score of these and drag them back as prisoners inside the defences. There was a fine discrimination of persons in the manoeuvre. Each buccaneer seized upon the Spaniard whose clothes struck him as the most rich, in the hopes that he was dressed only as befitted his rank, and in this rude theory there was little error. The silly Spaniards are very strict upon their sumptuary laws.
It was in truth these involuntary hostages which gained the invaders a leave to depart. The treasury of the church had been ransacked to the bare boards, and the plunder made up into parcels convenient for carriage. But every minute the force outside had been growing in numbers and adding to their materials for offence. It seemed a thing impossible that the buccaneers should ever cut their way back to the river's bank and the ship.
But Wick came out and faced the crowd with a brazen assurance.
"Look here," he said, "you people. We've got what we came for and we're ready to go. If you want more fighting, such as you've had a sample of already, by the Lord, we'll give you a belly full. You see this fine gentleman who's assisting me? That's Prince Rupert, who's come all the way from England to make a bit out here. And let me tell you you don't get a Prince amongst you every day. I'm Captain Wick, whose name you'll have heard often enough before and will again. Now if you're for further trouble, just say the word, and I'll fire this church in twenty places, and you can set about extinguishing it. We've got ten of your biggest men with us as hostages, and if you give us a quiet passage through the town, and let us get on our ship again unmolested, I'll make you a present of them sans ransom. But if you give me trouble, all that these good caballeros will want further at your hands will be ten little funerals. There, good people, there's a civil offer for you, and I want a reply straight and quick.—Inside the church there! Blow up your matches and stand by to fire the woodwork."
That the Spaniards have pride there is no denying, and had those in authority been able to speak their own mind, with such a large body of troops at their disposal they would never have accepted the disgrace of giving safe conduct to the insolent handful of buccaneers. Church and hostages would doubtless have been sacrificed, but at least the pride and honour of those that survived would have been retained to them. But the hostages had wives and daughters who clamoured shrilly that they should not be sacrificed, and the other women of the place added their voices to the plea, through the dread of horrors which would come very short of an absolute sack, and in the end the men (perhaps in truth glad of the excuse) with a strong show of reluctance, gave way.
Upon which out marched the buccaneers, careless of how near they had been to general massacre, and carrying themselves with their usual sturdy arrogance. Indeed, presently it occurred to one bright spirit that the success of the foray ought by rights to be celebrated by music, and so the pompous dons that were the hostages were compelled at the knife-point to whistle a cheery measure as they marched, and a very droll sight their faces presented to the onlooker.
Now it is hard for the historian of one who, like Rupert, is born by nature to be a leader to be compelled to own that another could supplant him in a leadership, and still bring his campaign to a prosperous issue. Still harder is it to write of the success of this man Wick, whose gentility was aped, and sat upon him untidily; who was indeed a vulgar fellow; and who on occasion got very nastily drunk and made ridiculous an inoffensive secretary like Stephen Laughan. But the plain truth must be set down that the conduct of this expedition by Wick was by some extraordinary freak of fortune entirely successful; and though a tidy number of the buccaneers were killed, it is not the custom of the survivors to waste superfluous regrets on their late companions. For whatever can be said against the murderous forays of these men, it can never be held that they value their own lives any more highly than they esteem the lives of their enemies.
But the secretary can at least look back with pleasure at a little scene which was brought about by this adventure. The buccaneers marched down the streets of the town always on the keen alert, and presenting a very ugly front and rear. They had a contemptuous distrust for the good faith of the Spaniards. But they were not molested. And in due time they passed out through the Watergate, got on board their ship, and then honourably fulfilling their engagement, gave the hostages enlargement, though with some impertinence, requesting that they would whistle them out of ear-shot. Then they poled off from the shore, hoisted their topsails, set the courses and mizzen, and stood out over the bar to sea, and those that were wounded—and these were most—had for the first time leisure to tend their hurts.
But when the bar was passed, and the swells of the open sea once more swung the ship over their breasts, Captain Wick gave a compass course to the helmsman, and took off his hat with a great bow to Prince Rupert, and laughed.
"That direction you've set should take us back to Curassou," said the Prince.
"That's what my navigation intends, your Excellency."
"And to the harbour from which we came?"
"It comes to my mind there's more profit to be got there than elsewhere."
"In the matter of those freights that we spoke about?"
"Why, there you've hit it to a nicety," said Wick, rubbing his hands. "All's fair in love and buccaneering. I still think you made us pay too dear for those passages."
"So?" said the Prince. "Well, there, I suppose, Captain, we shall continue to agreeably differ. For a wager it was one of the Spanish prisoners who saw me bury the stuff."
"You've guessed it," said Wick laughing. "I gave the man freedom for his news."
"Very generous of you," said Rupert laughing also. "And he told you true; I did bury it there. Under three palm trees just at the back of your bivouac, was it not?"
"That's the place," said Wick, "and if your lordship had been as old a buccaneer as me, you'd have gone a bit further off. You trusted too much to our drunkenness."
"Why, no," said Rupert drily, "it seems to me I trusted just enough. In candid truth I reckoned on being seen. In fact, I invited supervision."
"Eh?" said Wick, beginning to look glum.
"Why, you see, Captain, I argued like this: I'd charged for those passages what some might think a high price. I guessed that after you'd had your frolic ashore, some of you would be for getting back a discount: and in the meanwhile, as I didn't know how deep your drunkenness went, for aught I knew some of you might be watching me. So I buried the treasure where I might be overlooked, so as to satisfy the curious, and afterwards, at a quieter time, dug it up again, and reburied it elsewhere. Of course, if you like to take your spades and turn the whole of Curassou into arable land, you may stumble upon my banking-place, though I doubt it; but I think your time could be spent to greater profit elsewhere."
Now there is no doubt that Wick was greatly annoyed at this turn which affairs had taken, but he had the wit to conceal his chagrin. To go back to the island and dig at random would be mere foolishness, and his crew would be quick enough to tell him of it. For the authority of these buccaneer commanders is in truth shallow enough, and for anything like a reverse, or a piece of policy which does not prove immediately profitable, a captain is deposed with promptness, and another set up in his place. The which would not have suited Wick, who was very big with his position.
So after a meal and a sleep, when the crew were rested, a council was called of all hands to decide upon future movements, and the incident of the passage money was dropped then, and, so far as Master Laughan knows, for always.
But when Prince Rupert was restored to his fleet, he sailed round to that quarter and dug it from the place where it was hidden, namely, in the rough sands of the seashore, where the tide ebbed and flowed twice in the course of each natural day. And so in due time the treasure came to the hands of our gracious king at The Hague, and played its slender part in bringing about the blessed Restoration.