Chapter Seven.

Chapter Seven.How they came to San Juan de Ulua.Having explained to Dyer his proposed scheme of operations, George left to the pilot the task of attending to the necessary manoeuvring of the ship, and, going forward, called for four volunteers to go with him in the boat to handle her and assist, if it might be, in saving the unfortunate crew of the Spanish ship. As he had anticipated, he met with no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of men for his purpose, four of his oldBonaventure’sat once stepping forward at his call. Directing these men to follow him, he then returned aft to where the boat he intended to use hung swinging from the davits and, pointing to her, instructed his volunteers to enter her, remove the plug from her bottom to allow all the water to run out of her, and, while this was doing, pass out the masts, sails, and all other gear not absolutely required in the execution of the task which the intrepid quintette were about to undertake. Then, these things being done, the plug was returned to its place and driven well home, the oars were unlashed, the thole pins shipped, the tackle falls well-greased, the coils cast off the belaying pins, and every preparation made for the delicate operation of launching. While these matters were being attended to the young captain stood looking on, directing the men’s movements, and pondering upon the difficulty which he foresaw in connection with the quick release of the boat from her tackles as soon as she should become water-borne. It was absolutely necessary that this should be infallibly accomplished at precisely the right instant, otherwise there was the risk on the one hand of the boat being smashed to staves by being violently dashed against the side of the heavily rolling ship; or, upon the other, of her being released at one end only, in which case the unreleased end of the boat would be lifted high out of the water again by the counter roll of the ship and her crew all flung into the water.Suddenly he saw his way clear; the solution of the difficulty had come to him, and he issued his orders rapidly, for time was pressing, theNonsuchhad been hove about, and was now bearing down to take up a position just to windward of the wreck. First of all, the boat was temporarily slung by stout ropes from the davit ends; then the tackles were let go and unhooked. Next, two stout rope strops were passed through the ringbolts by which the boat was suspended from the tackles and one bight passed through the other and secured in place by a well-greased toggle, or piece of wood capable of being easily and quickly withdrawn; and finally the bights thus formed were passed over the hooks of the blocks, the tackles, were boused taut and made fast again, and the temporary supports were cast off, thus leaving the boat once more suspended by the tackles. George explained the device to the men, and when he was satisfied that they perfectly understood the working of it, ordered them into the boat, himself following them and stationing himself at the craft’s tiller, when a short wait occurred during which theNonsuchwas working her way toward the position necessary for the success of the experiment which was about to be made.At length the critical moment arrived; theNonsuchrolled and plunged, with creaking timbers and groaning yards, up to windward of and some fifty fathoms distant from the wallowing Spaniard, and, the mainyard having been backed with perfect judgment by Dyer, came to a standstill exactly abreast the dismasted hulk, thus affording a lee and comparatively smooth water in which her boat might make a dash for the wreck; then, taking advantage of a heavy lee roll, the boat was very smartly lowered away upon an even keel, and struck the water with a resounding splash.“Let go!” yelled George, as he felt the boat take the water, and prompt at the word the two men who were stationed at the tackles drew the well-greased toggles, releasing the boat, oars were thrown out, and away dashed the boat right down to leeward, heading to pass under the stern of the wreck and come up in the comparatively sheltered water under her lee. The passage was but a short one, and some three minutes later the small craft, tossed buoyantly aloft upon the great foaming surges, had safely passed under the stern of theDoña Catalinaand rounded-to under her lee. Then theNonsuch, which had by this time driven down perilously near to the wreck, filled away again and just managed to handsomely draw clear.The three Spaniards were still clinging for their lives to the broken bulwarks, and as George looked up he caught a momentary glimpse of some seven or eight other heads peering over the rail down in the vessel’s waist; but there was nothing to indicate that anything had been done by those on board to help those who were risking their own lives to save theirs. There was no time for argument or discussion, however; therefore George simply hailed the trio on the poop, tersely explaining that he dared not attempt to lay the boat alongside, and that consequently those who were anxious to have a chance for life must simply jump overboard and trust to those in the boat to pick them up. And at the same time he directed the two bow oarsmen to lay in their oars and hold themselves ready to pick up those who cared to jump while the other two oarsmen paddled the boat up as close to the heaving and staggering wreck as it was prudent to go.Then ensued a long and heated debate among the Spaniards themselves, not one of whom seemed to possess the courage necessary to trust himself even momentarily to the raging sea, during which the crew of the boat patiently maintained their position within a fathom or so of the wallowing hulk; but at length some sort of a decision seemed to have been arrived at, for the short, stout, black-bearded man suddenly made his appearance at the gangway, grasping a handspike, and, having first inquired whether those in the boat were ready, and receiving an affirmative reply, sprang outward, feet foremost. He struck the water within less than half a fathom of the boat, vanished beneath the surface for a moment, and re-appeared, coughing and spitting, still convulsively clutching the handspike, close enough to enable those in the boat to instantly seize him by the collar and haul him in over the gunwale, none the worse for his plunge and dip. He was at once hustled aft into the stern sheets, out of the way, and his rescue had been effected with such absolute promptitude and simplicity that there was now no further hesitation on the part of those left behind, who, one after another, presented themselves at the gangway, some provided with handspikes, some with oars, and one or two with short lengths of planking, or a grating, and leaped, with the courage of desperation, into the swirling foam, to the number of just a dozen. Then, as no more appeared, George inquired where the remainder were; upon which the black-bearded man, after counting heads, informed him that all the living had now left the ship, the rest of the crew having been either killed or washed overboard when the ship became dismasted.And now came the most difficult part of the whole undertaking, namely, getting the boat and its cargo safe aboard the parent ship. TheNonsuchwas just then about a mile distant from the derelict, hove-to on the larboard tack, awaiting a signal from George indicating that the rescue had been effected and that he was now ready to make the great attempt. That signal was now made by lashing a handkerchief to the end of a boathook and waving it wildly in the air; upon seeing which, Dyer, who had been manoeuvring the ship with the most consummate judgment, filled upon her and brought her close up under the derelict’s lee. Then, and not until then, George gave the word, and the now heavily loaded boat, floating deep in the water, headed out from under the sheltering lee of the derelict, made a dash across the short space of turbulent surges that separated her from theNonsuch, accomplished the passage safely, slipped round under the stern of the ship, now once more hove-to on the larboard tack, and rounded-to in the comparative “smooth” of her lee.But now that she was there, how were the people to be got out of her? For it was just as dangerous to attempt to lay her alongside theNonsuchas it had been to make the same attempt with theDoña Catalina. But Dyer had seen to this; for while the boat had been absent on her errand of mercy the pilot had ordered a block to be lashed to the starboard mainyard-arm, a whip rove through it, a boatswain’s chair made fast to the end of the whip, and a hauling line bent on to the boatswain’s chair; and when the boat ranged up under theNonsuch’slee, there was the whole apparatus dangling in the air, ready to effect the transfer. To manoeuvre the boat under it and to lower the chair into the boat was an easy matter, when all that remained was for a man to get into the contrivance and be hoisted aloft and hauled into safety. The transfer of the twelve rescued Spaniards was safely accomplished in considerably less than an hour; and now all that remained was to hook on the boat and hoist her up to the davits. Yes; that was all; but it was the most difficult and delicate part of the whole undertaking; yet the seamanship of George and Dyer proved equal to the task, and another quarter of an hour saw the boat once more safely dangling at the davits, with scarcely a scratch on her paint to show what a trying ordeal she had passed through, and theNonsuchwas again speeding away to the westward, leaving the derelict to her not long delayed fate.The quarter boat safely hoisted, George at once turned his attention to his guests. The black-bearded man, it appeared, was the captain of the ill-fatedDoña Catalina, and he introduced himself as simply Captain Robledo Martinez, without the pretentious prefix of “Don” or anything else. Him, George took under his own wing, ordering a cot to be slung for him down on the half-deck, with a screen of canvas triced up round it to insure privacy. The poor fellow, like all the rest of the rescued Spaniards, had, of course, only the clothes that he stood up in, and they were dripping wet; but, fortunately, theNonsuchwas well provided in the matter of slop chests, and Captain Martinez, together with the other survivors of theDoña Catalina, was soon rigged afresh.It transpired that the Spanish vessel was on her way from Cartagena to San Juan de Ulua, with despatches to the Viceroy of Mexico, when she encountered the hurricane that had overwhelmed her, and that, before being rescued, her crew had been exposed to the full fury of the elements for twenty-six hours, in momentary expectation that the vessel would founder under their feet; they were therefore given a warm meal, and then dispatched below to make up their arrears of rest and recover from the exhaustion induced by prolonged exposure.But the conjunction of the names Cartagena and San Juan de Ulua, casually mentioned by Martinez in his brief conversation with George before retiring below, set the young Englishman thinking hard. The conjunction was suggestive, to say the least of it; for Cartagena was the city from which the plate fleet convoy started upon its annual long ocean voyage to Spain, accompanied by the Cartagena contingent of plate ships, with which it proceeded to Nombre de Dios—regarded as “The Treasure-House of the World”—to take charge of the ships which proceeded thence annually, loaded with treasure of incalculable value for the replenishment of the Spanish coffers; while from thence the combined fleet was wont to proceed to San Juan, there to be joined by the ships carrying the Mexican contribution of treasure, of scarcely less value than that shipped from Nombre. George Saint Leger had not been for so many months intimately associated with Dyer, the pilot of the expedition, and a survivor of the disaster which had overtaken Admiral John Hawkins at San Juan de Ulua only a year previously, without hearing all about the twelve large treasure galleons which the Devonians had found lying defenceless in the harbour of that city when they arrived there, torn and shattered by such a hurricane as that which had reduced theDoña Catalinato a waterlogged and sinking hulk, and he wondered whether perchance it might be his good fortune to find another such fleet in the harbour upon his arrival there. If so—well, Admiral Hawkins had spared the treasure which he found there, for the best of all reasons, namely, that his own ships were in no condition to engage in a fight with the shore batteries, which it would be necessary to silence before he could seize the plate ships, while, on the other hand, it was imperative that he should enter the harbour to refit, and he could not do so without the consent of the Spanish authorities; therefore he had been obliged to sign a convention whereby in consideration of his receiving permission to refit in peace and without hindrance, he was to leave the plate ships unmolested. Hawkins had scrupulously adhered to his part of the agreement, but the Spaniards had deliberately broken theirs; and George was determined that now they should dearly pay for their treachery, if Dame Fortune would but favour him. He talked the matter over, first with Dyer, and then they together discussed it with Basset, the captain of the soldiers, and Heard, the purser; with the result that it was unanimously agreed among them that they would make a determined attempt upon the fleet, if it should happen to be in harbour upon their arrival.But, in order to insure the success of their daring project, it was necessary that they should be possessed of the fullest information possible; therefore when Martinez came on deck that evening, after several hours of refreshing sleep, George informed the unfortunate man, in a perfectly friendly way, that he and the survivors of his crew were prisoners; and demanded to know what had become of the despatches with which he had been entrusted. Martinez, who proved to be quite a simple straightforward sailor, at once replied that he had them in his pocket; and upon Saint Leger demanding them he handed them over with merely a formal protest; whereupon George found himself possessed of a small packet carefully enveloped in several folds of oiled silk in which the honest skipper had wrapped them prior to jumping overboard, when escaping from his wrecked ship.Of course George opened the despatches forthwith, to find that they consisted, for the most part, of documents which possessed no interest at all for him; but there was one letter which furnished him with precisely the information that it was most important for him to possess. It was from the Governor of the city of Cartagena, and was addressed to “His Excellency Don Martin Enriquez, Viceroy of his Most Catholic Majesty’s Province of Mexico, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,” and was to the effect that, news having reached the writer from Lima that an epidemic of sickness had broken out among a large body of soldiers due to return home with that year’s plate fleet, the sailing of the Lima contingent had been postponed, to allow time for the epidemic to exhaust itself; and that therefore the departure of the convoy from Cartagena had likewise been postponed. The object of this letter, the writer went on to say, was to acquaint His Excellency with the fact of, and reason for, the delay, that he might not be rendered unduly anxious, through the non-arrival of the convoy; and to request that on no account should the plate ships be allowed to proceed to sea until the arrival of the convoy under the protection of which they were to make the homeward voyage. Which meant, as George pointed out to his officers when he translated the document to them, that upon their arrival at San Juan de Ulua, they would assuredly find a certain number of plate ships in the harbour, laden with treasure, and quite defenceless, save for such protection as the shore batteries might be able to afford. It was the chance of a lifetime,ifthey could but render those shore batteries innocuous; and an informal council of war was at once held in the great state cabin of theNonsuchto decide how this most desirable end might be achieved.To start with, Dyer, who was the only man among them who had ever been in the harbour of San Juan de Ulua, was furnished with pencil and paper, and commanded to draw a chart of the place, to scale, as nearly as he could, from memory; and after half an hour’s arduous labour—for chart drawing was not one of Dyer’s strong points—he produced a sketch that, rough as it was, promised to be of the utmost value to the adventurers. For it showed how, owing to the conformation of the land, Hawkins, with his small squadron, had, a year ago, been able to keep the whole of the Spanish fleet from entering the harbour until he had concluded an agreement with the treacherous Viceroy to permit them to do so; and how a small, well-found fleet outside might, if not driven off by bad weather, effectually blockade the port and prevent the escape of all shipping from it. Further than that, it disclosed to the more acute perceptions of George and Basset, the fact, which Dyer’s denser intellect had failed to grasp, that the much dreaded batteries had been mainly constructed, not so much to defend the place from an attack by sea, but to render a land attack by Indians practically impossible. For if the chart were correctly drawn—and Dyer was very straitly questioned upon this particular point—it showed that there was a certain spot in the harbour where, if a ship were moored, she would be sheltered from the fire of both batteries while at the same time the entire town, which, after all, was but a very small place, would be fully exposed to the artillery fire of the ship. Once completely satisfied upon this point, Saint Leger and Basset believed they saw their way to the capture and subjugation of the town, and laid their plans accordingly.Three days later, shortly after noon, they made the land and, as soon as Dyer had verified his bearings, hove-to for the night, some ten miles off-shore and well out of sight of the town, the day being by then too far advanced to permit of decisive action. But with the first appearance of dawn on the following day, sail was made, and theNonsuchstood boldly into San Juan de Ulua harbour and came to an anchor in the spot previously determined upon, where, as Dyer’s chart had indicated, she was safe from the fire of the two batteries which had been constructed to defend the northern and southern extremities of the town, which were its most vulnerable points, from a land attack. Twelve large plate ships were riding at anchor in the harbour, of which ten appeared to be fully loaded, while cargo was being actively transferred from the shore to the other two when the English ship ran in and anchored between them and the shore.The appearance of theNonsuchin the harbour was immediately productive of something very nearly approaching to panic, both in the town and on board the plate ships; for she had entered with the cross of Saint George flaunting from her ensign staff, and the first impression of the Spaniards was that their dreaded enemy, Drake, had returned; the bells of the cathedral clanged out a wild alarm; and it was seen that the crews of some of the plate ships were making hasty preparations to get under way, with the evident object of attempting to escape to the open sea. This last, of course, had to be at once put a stop to; therefore the moment that the anchor was down, George caused a boat to be lowered, and, with its crew armed to the teeth, pulled round the Spanish fleet, hailing each ship belonging to it, and informing the captains that any ship seen to be getting under way would at once be fired into and sunk. This threat, backed up as it was by the display of the English ship’s ordnance, had the desired effect, and there were no further attempts at flight just then on the part of the plate ships.George’s next act was to send Captain Martinez, of the wreckedDoña Catalina, ashore in one of theNonsuch’sboats, under a flag of truce. The captain was handed his dispatches, and was instructed to either deliver or forward them to the persons to whom they were addressed; and he was also given a letter addressed to the governor or chief magistrate of the town, summoning that functionary, together with twelve of the most influential inhabitants of the place, to a conference on board the English ship, upon a matter of vital import; the conference to begin not later than noon that day; the penalty of non-attendance being the bombardment of the town. Then, every preparation having been made to carry into effect the threatened bombardment, the English sat down and patiently awaited developments.Half an hour before the expiration of the specified time a large boat, flying a flag of truce, was seen to leave the wharf, and some ten minutes later she came up to within a few fathoms of theNonsuchgangway, when it was seen that, in addition to eight oarsmen, she carried in her stern sheets thirteen men, most of whom had passed beyond middle age, while all were, in appearance at least, and so far as dress was concerned, men of position and substance.Arrived within easy hailing distance, the oarsmen ceased their efforts at a sign from the man at the tiller, and an elderly individual, attired in what might be supposed to be robes of office, rose to his feet and, doffing his plumed hat, bowed to the little group of officers mustered on the ship’s poop. Then, hat in hand, he remarked:“Noble señors, I am Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, very much at your service; and in response to your somewhat imperatively worded letter I and my fellow townsmen have come out to confer with you. But before we board your ship I should like to ask you just one question. I see by your flag that you are English. Come you in peace, or in war, señors?”“That,” answered George, stepping forward, “is for you and your fellow townsmen to decide. But meanwhile I give you the assurance of an Englishman who has never yet broken his word to friend or foe, that you may come aboard without fear, and that when our conference is at an end you shall all be permitted to return to the shore without molestation—unless it becomes apparent that hostages are necessary.”The old gentleman bowed and, still with his hat in his hand, ventured upon a further inquiry. “And pray, noble señor, who is to determine whether or not hostages are regarded as necessary?” he demanded.“I and my officers will determine that point,” answered George. “But,” he continued, “I give you the further assurance that, should we decide upon the necessity to retain any of you as hostages, their persons will be as safe, and they will be treated with as much honour, on board this ship, as in their own houses—unless treachery of any kind be attempted, in which case I will hang them at my yard-arms as a wholesome warning to others.”This statement caused the utmost perturbation to the alcalde and his companions, as might easily be seen, for they all at once started to their feet and burst into excited conversation. But, as is usual in such cases, there were two or three—of whom the alcalde was one—who soon obtained an ascendency over the rest, quieting them and themselves carrying on the discussion; and after some ten minutes of earnest debate the rest sat down, leaving the alcalde standing alone to propound a still further question.“Illustrious señor,” he said, addressing himself to George, “my companions and I feel that, before we proceed further, or place ourselves altogether in your power, it is very necessary that we should know what acts you would be likely to construe as treachery on our part.”“The reply to such a question is not difficult,” replied George. “We should regard as an act of treachery any attempt on the part of either of those ships to put to sea; and also any attempt to attack us at disadvantage and without due warning, such as was perpetrated last year, in this very harbour, on my countryman, Admiral Hawkins.”This answer was received with much shaking of heads and uplifting of hands, followed by further eager consultation and debate, which ended at last by the alcalde putting a further and final question:“And, in the event of our refusing to board your ship under such conditions, señor, what will happen?”“You will be permitted to return to the shore without molestation,” answered George. “But,” he continued, “as soon as you shall have arrived and are landed, I shall seize every ship in this harbour; and, that done, shall proceed to bombard your town until you see fit to surrender it to me unconditionally!”More perturbation, more shaking of heads and agitated waving of hands, followed by further excited discussion lasting for close upon a quarter of an hour, after which the alcalde, standing in the midst of his companions and again addressing himself to George, observed:“Most illustrious señor, we, the alcalde and twelve of the representatives of the inhabitants of the city of San Juan de Ulua, have decided to rely upon your assurances, and now declare ourselves ready to board your ship, there to listen with all deference and attention to such communication as you may desire to make to us.” And therewith the old gentleman, bowing with much dignity, seated himself, replaced his hat, and gave an order to the steersman of the boat, who repeated it to the oarsmen; whereupon the boat got under way and pulled up alongside to where the gangway ladder already hung over the side for the accommodation of the Committee. And while this was doing, George, followed by his little knot of officers, descended from the poop to the main deck and grouped themselves about the gangway in readiness to receive their by no means willing visitors.Don Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, was the first to ascend the side and pass through theNonsuch’sgangway, when, again removing his hat and bowing profoundly to the little group of Englishmen, he stood aside until his twelve companions had joined him, when he proceeded to ceremoniously introduce them, one after the other, until he had named them all. Then George followed suit in like fashion, first introducing himself and then each of his officers to the group of visitors.This ceremony duly performed, the alcalde once more took up the tale.“Most illustrious señors,” he said, bowing to the Englishmen collectively, “touching the exceedingly delicate matter of treachery, you have the assurance of myself and colleagues that, so far as the city is concerned, you may absolutely depend that nothing of an overt nature shall be permitted to occur until an understanding of some sort—an amicable one, we all trust—shall have been arrived at between us. But with regard to the ships in the harbour, we feel that we cannot undertake to be answerable for the conduct of their captains and crews, since we have had no opportunity to communicate with them; we therefore venture to suggest that, in order to avoid anything in the nature of an untoward event, I, as chief magistrate, be permitted to write and dispatch to each ship an order embodying the instructions contained in the communication received by me, through your courtesy, this morning, from the governor of Cartagena.”“Or, perhaps, what would be still better,” replied George, “I would advise that you write an open order to the captain and chief officer of each ship, commanding their immediate presence here. I will then place them in honourable confinement until our negotiations are concluded, when we will, of course, release them. By adopting such a course I think we may make quite sure that none of them, through mistaken zeal, will do anything to interrupt the smooth course of our rather delicate negotiations. What say you?”The idea at once strongly commended itself to the party, who, it was quite evident, were more deeply interested in the preservation of their own skins than in anything else, and who, it was equally evident, were mortally afraid that some over-zealous individual might be tempted to do something for which this stern-faced young Englishman would hold them accountable; accordingly the order was written in the cabin of theNonsuch, summoning the commanding officers and their immediate subordinates to at once assemble on board the English ship to assist in the arrangement of a matter of vital importance to themselves and the city; and when it had been submitted to and approved by George and his officers, the alcalde’s boat was despatched with instructions to go the round of the plate ship fleet, show the order, and bring the officers back upon her return. That done, refreshments—including a liberal service of wine taken out of theSanta Maria—were placed upon the table in the state cabin, and the alcalde and his companions were invited to partake thereof pending the arrival of the men from the ships; but they were much too anxious to do justice to the viands spread before them, and would fain have forthwith proceeded to the business which they had been summoned to discuss. But George refused to say a word until the officers of the plate ships were safe under hatches; and a long interval now elapsed during which the anxiety and apprehension of the alcalde and his associates visibly increased, which was precisely the effect that the astute young captain desired to produce. At length, however, certain sounds from the deck outside reached the ears of those in the cabin, announcing the arrival of the men from the fleet, while other sounds, especially those of Spanish voices raised high in angry protest, proclaimed, a little later, that the new arrivals were being conducted below somewhat against their will; and finally Dyer appeared in the doorway with the information that the Spanish sailors had been taken below and were safe under guard; whereupon George rose to his feet and, addressing his visitors in his best Spanish, said:“Now, señors, every precaution that we could think of has been taken to insure the undisturbed discussion of the business which has brought me and my compatriots to San Juan de Ulua; with your permission, therefore, we will proceed.”

Having explained to Dyer his proposed scheme of operations, George left to the pilot the task of attending to the necessary manoeuvring of the ship, and, going forward, called for four volunteers to go with him in the boat to handle her and assist, if it might be, in saving the unfortunate crew of the Spanish ship. As he had anticipated, he met with no difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of men for his purpose, four of his oldBonaventure’sat once stepping forward at his call. Directing these men to follow him, he then returned aft to where the boat he intended to use hung swinging from the davits and, pointing to her, instructed his volunteers to enter her, remove the plug from her bottom to allow all the water to run out of her, and, while this was doing, pass out the masts, sails, and all other gear not absolutely required in the execution of the task which the intrepid quintette were about to undertake. Then, these things being done, the plug was returned to its place and driven well home, the oars were unlashed, the thole pins shipped, the tackle falls well-greased, the coils cast off the belaying pins, and every preparation made for the delicate operation of launching. While these matters were being attended to the young captain stood looking on, directing the men’s movements, and pondering upon the difficulty which he foresaw in connection with the quick release of the boat from her tackles as soon as she should become water-borne. It was absolutely necessary that this should be infallibly accomplished at precisely the right instant, otherwise there was the risk on the one hand of the boat being smashed to staves by being violently dashed against the side of the heavily rolling ship; or, upon the other, of her being released at one end only, in which case the unreleased end of the boat would be lifted high out of the water again by the counter roll of the ship and her crew all flung into the water.

Suddenly he saw his way clear; the solution of the difficulty had come to him, and he issued his orders rapidly, for time was pressing, theNonsuchhad been hove about, and was now bearing down to take up a position just to windward of the wreck. First of all, the boat was temporarily slung by stout ropes from the davit ends; then the tackles were let go and unhooked. Next, two stout rope strops were passed through the ringbolts by which the boat was suspended from the tackles and one bight passed through the other and secured in place by a well-greased toggle, or piece of wood capable of being easily and quickly withdrawn; and finally the bights thus formed were passed over the hooks of the blocks, the tackles, were boused taut and made fast again, and the temporary supports were cast off, thus leaving the boat once more suspended by the tackles. George explained the device to the men, and when he was satisfied that they perfectly understood the working of it, ordered them into the boat, himself following them and stationing himself at the craft’s tiller, when a short wait occurred during which theNonsuchwas working her way toward the position necessary for the success of the experiment which was about to be made.

At length the critical moment arrived; theNonsuchrolled and plunged, with creaking timbers and groaning yards, up to windward of and some fifty fathoms distant from the wallowing Spaniard, and, the mainyard having been backed with perfect judgment by Dyer, came to a standstill exactly abreast the dismasted hulk, thus affording a lee and comparatively smooth water in which her boat might make a dash for the wreck; then, taking advantage of a heavy lee roll, the boat was very smartly lowered away upon an even keel, and struck the water with a resounding splash.

“Let go!” yelled George, as he felt the boat take the water, and prompt at the word the two men who were stationed at the tackles drew the well-greased toggles, releasing the boat, oars were thrown out, and away dashed the boat right down to leeward, heading to pass under the stern of the wreck and come up in the comparatively sheltered water under her lee. The passage was but a short one, and some three minutes later the small craft, tossed buoyantly aloft upon the great foaming surges, had safely passed under the stern of theDoña Catalinaand rounded-to under her lee. Then theNonsuch, which had by this time driven down perilously near to the wreck, filled away again and just managed to handsomely draw clear.

The three Spaniards were still clinging for their lives to the broken bulwarks, and as George looked up he caught a momentary glimpse of some seven or eight other heads peering over the rail down in the vessel’s waist; but there was nothing to indicate that anything had been done by those on board to help those who were risking their own lives to save theirs. There was no time for argument or discussion, however; therefore George simply hailed the trio on the poop, tersely explaining that he dared not attempt to lay the boat alongside, and that consequently those who were anxious to have a chance for life must simply jump overboard and trust to those in the boat to pick them up. And at the same time he directed the two bow oarsmen to lay in their oars and hold themselves ready to pick up those who cared to jump while the other two oarsmen paddled the boat up as close to the heaving and staggering wreck as it was prudent to go.

Then ensued a long and heated debate among the Spaniards themselves, not one of whom seemed to possess the courage necessary to trust himself even momentarily to the raging sea, during which the crew of the boat patiently maintained their position within a fathom or so of the wallowing hulk; but at length some sort of a decision seemed to have been arrived at, for the short, stout, black-bearded man suddenly made his appearance at the gangway, grasping a handspike, and, having first inquired whether those in the boat were ready, and receiving an affirmative reply, sprang outward, feet foremost. He struck the water within less than half a fathom of the boat, vanished beneath the surface for a moment, and re-appeared, coughing and spitting, still convulsively clutching the handspike, close enough to enable those in the boat to instantly seize him by the collar and haul him in over the gunwale, none the worse for his plunge and dip. He was at once hustled aft into the stern sheets, out of the way, and his rescue had been effected with such absolute promptitude and simplicity that there was now no further hesitation on the part of those left behind, who, one after another, presented themselves at the gangway, some provided with handspikes, some with oars, and one or two with short lengths of planking, or a grating, and leaped, with the courage of desperation, into the swirling foam, to the number of just a dozen. Then, as no more appeared, George inquired where the remainder were; upon which the black-bearded man, after counting heads, informed him that all the living had now left the ship, the rest of the crew having been either killed or washed overboard when the ship became dismasted.

And now came the most difficult part of the whole undertaking, namely, getting the boat and its cargo safe aboard the parent ship. TheNonsuchwas just then about a mile distant from the derelict, hove-to on the larboard tack, awaiting a signal from George indicating that the rescue had been effected and that he was now ready to make the great attempt. That signal was now made by lashing a handkerchief to the end of a boathook and waving it wildly in the air; upon seeing which, Dyer, who had been manoeuvring the ship with the most consummate judgment, filled upon her and brought her close up under the derelict’s lee. Then, and not until then, George gave the word, and the now heavily loaded boat, floating deep in the water, headed out from under the sheltering lee of the derelict, made a dash across the short space of turbulent surges that separated her from theNonsuch, accomplished the passage safely, slipped round under the stern of the ship, now once more hove-to on the larboard tack, and rounded-to in the comparative “smooth” of her lee.

But now that she was there, how were the people to be got out of her? For it was just as dangerous to attempt to lay her alongside theNonsuchas it had been to make the same attempt with theDoña Catalina. But Dyer had seen to this; for while the boat had been absent on her errand of mercy the pilot had ordered a block to be lashed to the starboard mainyard-arm, a whip rove through it, a boatswain’s chair made fast to the end of the whip, and a hauling line bent on to the boatswain’s chair; and when the boat ranged up under theNonsuch’slee, there was the whole apparatus dangling in the air, ready to effect the transfer. To manoeuvre the boat under it and to lower the chair into the boat was an easy matter, when all that remained was for a man to get into the contrivance and be hoisted aloft and hauled into safety. The transfer of the twelve rescued Spaniards was safely accomplished in considerably less than an hour; and now all that remained was to hook on the boat and hoist her up to the davits. Yes; that was all; but it was the most difficult and delicate part of the whole undertaking; yet the seamanship of George and Dyer proved equal to the task, and another quarter of an hour saw the boat once more safely dangling at the davits, with scarcely a scratch on her paint to show what a trying ordeal she had passed through, and theNonsuchwas again speeding away to the westward, leaving the derelict to her not long delayed fate.

The quarter boat safely hoisted, George at once turned his attention to his guests. The black-bearded man, it appeared, was the captain of the ill-fatedDoña Catalina, and he introduced himself as simply Captain Robledo Martinez, without the pretentious prefix of “Don” or anything else. Him, George took under his own wing, ordering a cot to be slung for him down on the half-deck, with a screen of canvas triced up round it to insure privacy. The poor fellow, like all the rest of the rescued Spaniards, had, of course, only the clothes that he stood up in, and they were dripping wet; but, fortunately, theNonsuchwas well provided in the matter of slop chests, and Captain Martinez, together with the other survivors of theDoña Catalina, was soon rigged afresh.

It transpired that the Spanish vessel was on her way from Cartagena to San Juan de Ulua, with despatches to the Viceroy of Mexico, when she encountered the hurricane that had overwhelmed her, and that, before being rescued, her crew had been exposed to the full fury of the elements for twenty-six hours, in momentary expectation that the vessel would founder under their feet; they were therefore given a warm meal, and then dispatched below to make up their arrears of rest and recover from the exhaustion induced by prolonged exposure.

But the conjunction of the names Cartagena and San Juan de Ulua, casually mentioned by Martinez in his brief conversation with George before retiring below, set the young Englishman thinking hard. The conjunction was suggestive, to say the least of it; for Cartagena was the city from which the plate fleet convoy started upon its annual long ocean voyage to Spain, accompanied by the Cartagena contingent of plate ships, with which it proceeded to Nombre de Dios—regarded as “The Treasure-House of the World”—to take charge of the ships which proceeded thence annually, loaded with treasure of incalculable value for the replenishment of the Spanish coffers; while from thence the combined fleet was wont to proceed to San Juan, there to be joined by the ships carrying the Mexican contribution of treasure, of scarcely less value than that shipped from Nombre. George Saint Leger had not been for so many months intimately associated with Dyer, the pilot of the expedition, and a survivor of the disaster which had overtaken Admiral John Hawkins at San Juan de Ulua only a year previously, without hearing all about the twelve large treasure galleons which the Devonians had found lying defenceless in the harbour of that city when they arrived there, torn and shattered by such a hurricane as that which had reduced theDoña Catalinato a waterlogged and sinking hulk, and he wondered whether perchance it might be his good fortune to find another such fleet in the harbour upon his arrival there. If so—well, Admiral Hawkins had spared the treasure which he found there, for the best of all reasons, namely, that his own ships were in no condition to engage in a fight with the shore batteries, which it would be necessary to silence before he could seize the plate ships, while, on the other hand, it was imperative that he should enter the harbour to refit, and he could not do so without the consent of the Spanish authorities; therefore he had been obliged to sign a convention whereby in consideration of his receiving permission to refit in peace and without hindrance, he was to leave the plate ships unmolested. Hawkins had scrupulously adhered to his part of the agreement, but the Spaniards had deliberately broken theirs; and George was determined that now they should dearly pay for their treachery, if Dame Fortune would but favour him. He talked the matter over, first with Dyer, and then they together discussed it with Basset, the captain of the soldiers, and Heard, the purser; with the result that it was unanimously agreed among them that they would make a determined attempt upon the fleet, if it should happen to be in harbour upon their arrival.

But, in order to insure the success of their daring project, it was necessary that they should be possessed of the fullest information possible; therefore when Martinez came on deck that evening, after several hours of refreshing sleep, George informed the unfortunate man, in a perfectly friendly way, that he and the survivors of his crew were prisoners; and demanded to know what had become of the despatches with which he had been entrusted. Martinez, who proved to be quite a simple straightforward sailor, at once replied that he had them in his pocket; and upon Saint Leger demanding them he handed them over with merely a formal protest; whereupon George found himself possessed of a small packet carefully enveloped in several folds of oiled silk in which the honest skipper had wrapped them prior to jumping overboard, when escaping from his wrecked ship.

Of course George opened the despatches forthwith, to find that they consisted, for the most part, of documents which possessed no interest at all for him; but there was one letter which furnished him with precisely the information that it was most important for him to possess. It was from the Governor of the city of Cartagena, and was addressed to “His Excellency Don Martin Enriquez, Viceroy of his Most Catholic Majesty’s Province of Mexico, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,” and was to the effect that, news having reached the writer from Lima that an epidemic of sickness had broken out among a large body of soldiers due to return home with that year’s plate fleet, the sailing of the Lima contingent had been postponed, to allow time for the epidemic to exhaust itself; and that therefore the departure of the convoy from Cartagena had likewise been postponed. The object of this letter, the writer went on to say, was to acquaint His Excellency with the fact of, and reason for, the delay, that he might not be rendered unduly anxious, through the non-arrival of the convoy; and to request that on no account should the plate ships be allowed to proceed to sea until the arrival of the convoy under the protection of which they were to make the homeward voyage. Which meant, as George pointed out to his officers when he translated the document to them, that upon their arrival at San Juan de Ulua, they would assuredly find a certain number of plate ships in the harbour, laden with treasure, and quite defenceless, save for such protection as the shore batteries might be able to afford. It was the chance of a lifetime,ifthey could but render those shore batteries innocuous; and an informal council of war was at once held in the great state cabin of theNonsuchto decide how this most desirable end might be achieved.

To start with, Dyer, who was the only man among them who had ever been in the harbour of San Juan de Ulua, was furnished with pencil and paper, and commanded to draw a chart of the place, to scale, as nearly as he could, from memory; and after half an hour’s arduous labour—for chart drawing was not one of Dyer’s strong points—he produced a sketch that, rough as it was, promised to be of the utmost value to the adventurers. For it showed how, owing to the conformation of the land, Hawkins, with his small squadron, had, a year ago, been able to keep the whole of the Spanish fleet from entering the harbour until he had concluded an agreement with the treacherous Viceroy to permit them to do so; and how a small, well-found fleet outside might, if not driven off by bad weather, effectually blockade the port and prevent the escape of all shipping from it. Further than that, it disclosed to the more acute perceptions of George and Basset, the fact, which Dyer’s denser intellect had failed to grasp, that the much dreaded batteries had been mainly constructed, not so much to defend the place from an attack by sea, but to render a land attack by Indians practically impossible. For if the chart were correctly drawn—and Dyer was very straitly questioned upon this particular point—it showed that there was a certain spot in the harbour where, if a ship were moored, she would be sheltered from the fire of both batteries while at the same time the entire town, which, after all, was but a very small place, would be fully exposed to the artillery fire of the ship. Once completely satisfied upon this point, Saint Leger and Basset believed they saw their way to the capture and subjugation of the town, and laid their plans accordingly.

Three days later, shortly after noon, they made the land and, as soon as Dyer had verified his bearings, hove-to for the night, some ten miles off-shore and well out of sight of the town, the day being by then too far advanced to permit of decisive action. But with the first appearance of dawn on the following day, sail was made, and theNonsuchstood boldly into San Juan de Ulua harbour and came to an anchor in the spot previously determined upon, where, as Dyer’s chart had indicated, she was safe from the fire of the two batteries which had been constructed to defend the northern and southern extremities of the town, which were its most vulnerable points, from a land attack. Twelve large plate ships were riding at anchor in the harbour, of which ten appeared to be fully loaded, while cargo was being actively transferred from the shore to the other two when the English ship ran in and anchored between them and the shore.

The appearance of theNonsuchin the harbour was immediately productive of something very nearly approaching to panic, both in the town and on board the plate ships; for she had entered with the cross of Saint George flaunting from her ensign staff, and the first impression of the Spaniards was that their dreaded enemy, Drake, had returned; the bells of the cathedral clanged out a wild alarm; and it was seen that the crews of some of the plate ships were making hasty preparations to get under way, with the evident object of attempting to escape to the open sea. This last, of course, had to be at once put a stop to; therefore the moment that the anchor was down, George caused a boat to be lowered, and, with its crew armed to the teeth, pulled round the Spanish fleet, hailing each ship belonging to it, and informing the captains that any ship seen to be getting under way would at once be fired into and sunk. This threat, backed up as it was by the display of the English ship’s ordnance, had the desired effect, and there were no further attempts at flight just then on the part of the plate ships.

George’s next act was to send Captain Martinez, of the wreckedDoña Catalina, ashore in one of theNonsuch’sboats, under a flag of truce. The captain was handed his dispatches, and was instructed to either deliver or forward them to the persons to whom they were addressed; and he was also given a letter addressed to the governor or chief magistrate of the town, summoning that functionary, together with twelve of the most influential inhabitants of the place, to a conference on board the English ship, upon a matter of vital import; the conference to begin not later than noon that day; the penalty of non-attendance being the bombardment of the town. Then, every preparation having been made to carry into effect the threatened bombardment, the English sat down and patiently awaited developments.

Half an hour before the expiration of the specified time a large boat, flying a flag of truce, was seen to leave the wharf, and some ten minutes later she came up to within a few fathoms of theNonsuchgangway, when it was seen that, in addition to eight oarsmen, she carried in her stern sheets thirteen men, most of whom had passed beyond middle age, while all were, in appearance at least, and so far as dress was concerned, men of position and substance.

Arrived within easy hailing distance, the oarsmen ceased their efforts at a sign from the man at the tiller, and an elderly individual, attired in what might be supposed to be robes of office, rose to his feet and, doffing his plumed hat, bowed to the little group of officers mustered on the ship’s poop. Then, hat in hand, he remarked:

“Noble señors, I am Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, very much at your service; and in response to your somewhat imperatively worded letter I and my fellow townsmen have come out to confer with you. But before we board your ship I should like to ask you just one question. I see by your flag that you are English. Come you in peace, or in war, señors?”

“That,” answered George, stepping forward, “is for you and your fellow townsmen to decide. But meanwhile I give you the assurance of an Englishman who has never yet broken his word to friend or foe, that you may come aboard without fear, and that when our conference is at an end you shall all be permitted to return to the shore without molestation—unless it becomes apparent that hostages are necessary.”

The old gentleman bowed and, still with his hat in his hand, ventured upon a further inquiry. “And pray, noble señor, who is to determine whether or not hostages are regarded as necessary?” he demanded.

“I and my officers will determine that point,” answered George. “But,” he continued, “I give you the further assurance that, should we decide upon the necessity to retain any of you as hostages, their persons will be as safe, and they will be treated with as much honour, on board this ship, as in their own houses—unless treachery of any kind be attempted, in which case I will hang them at my yard-arms as a wholesome warning to others.”

This statement caused the utmost perturbation to the alcalde and his companions, as might easily be seen, for they all at once started to their feet and burst into excited conversation. But, as is usual in such cases, there were two or three—of whom the alcalde was one—who soon obtained an ascendency over the rest, quieting them and themselves carrying on the discussion; and after some ten minutes of earnest debate the rest sat down, leaving the alcalde standing alone to propound a still further question.

“Illustrious señor,” he said, addressing himself to George, “my companions and I feel that, before we proceed further, or place ourselves altogether in your power, it is very necessary that we should know what acts you would be likely to construe as treachery on our part.”

“The reply to such a question is not difficult,” replied George. “We should regard as an act of treachery any attempt on the part of either of those ships to put to sea; and also any attempt to attack us at disadvantage and without due warning, such as was perpetrated last year, in this very harbour, on my countryman, Admiral Hawkins.”

This answer was received with much shaking of heads and uplifting of hands, followed by further eager consultation and debate, which ended at last by the alcalde putting a further and final question:

“And, in the event of our refusing to board your ship under such conditions, señor, what will happen?”

“You will be permitted to return to the shore without molestation,” answered George. “But,” he continued, “as soon as you shall have arrived and are landed, I shall seize every ship in this harbour; and, that done, shall proceed to bombard your town until you see fit to surrender it to me unconditionally!”

More perturbation, more shaking of heads and agitated waving of hands, followed by further excited discussion lasting for close upon a quarter of an hour, after which the alcalde, standing in the midst of his companions and again addressing himself to George, observed:

“Most illustrious señor, we, the alcalde and twelve of the representatives of the inhabitants of the city of San Juan de Ulua, have decided to rely upon your assurances, and now declare ourselves ready to board your ship, there to listen with all deference and attention to such communication as you may desire to make to us.” And therewith the old gentleman, bowing with much dignity, seated himself, replaced his hat, and gave an order to the steersman of the boat, who repeated it to the oarsmen; whereupon the boat got under way and pulled up alongside to where the gangway ladder already hung over the side for the accommodation of the Committee. And while this was doing, George, followed by his little knot of officers, descended from the poop to the main deck and grouped themselves about the gangway in readiness to receive their by no means willing visitors.

Don Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, was the first to ascend the side and pass through theNonsuch’sgangway, when, again removing his hat and bowing profoundly to the little group of Englishmen, he stood aside until his twelve companions had joined him, when he proceeded to ceremoniously introduce them, one after the other, until he had named them all. Then George followed suit in like fashion, first introducing himself and then each of his officers to the group of visitors.

This ceremony duly performed, the alcalde once more took up the tale.

“Most illustrious señors,” he said, bowing to the Englishmen collectively, “touching the exceedingly delicate matter of treachery, you have the assurance of myself and colleagues that, so far as the city is concerned, you may absolutely depend that nothing of an overt nature shall be permitted to occur until an understanding of some sort—an amicable one, we all trust—shall have been arrived at between us. But with regard to the ships in the harbour, we feel that we cannot undertake to be answerable for the conduct of their captains and crews, since we have had no opportunity to communicate with them; we therefore venture to suggest that, in order to avoid anything in the nature of an untoward event, I, as chief magistrate, be permitted to write and dispatch to each ship an order embodying the instructions contained in the communication received by me, through your courtesy, this morning, from the governor of Cartagena.”

“Or, perhaps, what would be still better,” replied George, “I would advise that you write an open order to the captain and chief officer of each ship, commanding their immediate presence here. I will then place them in honourable confinement until our negotiations are concluded, when we will, of course, release them. By adopting such a course I think we may make quite sure that none of them, through mistaken zeal, will do anything to interrupt the smooth course of our rather delicate negotiations. What say you?”

The idea at once strongly commended itself to the party, who, it was quite evident, were more deeply interested in the preservation of their own skins than in anything else, and who, it was equally evident, were mortally afraid that some over-zealous individual might be tempted to do something for which this stern-faced young Englishman would hold them accountable; accordingly the order was written in the cabin of theNonsuch, summoning the commanding officers and their immediate subordinates to at once assemble on board the English ship to assist in the arrangement of a matter of vital importance to themselves and the city; and when it had been submitted to and approved by George and his officers, the alcalde’s boat was despatched with instructions to go the round of the plate ship fleet, show the order, and bring the officers back upon her return. That done, refreshments—including a liberal service of wine taken out of theSanta Maria—were placed upon the table in the state cabin, and the alcalde and his companions were invited to partake thereof pending the arrival of the men from the ships; but they were much too anxious to do justice to the viands spread before them, and would fain have forthwith proceeded to the business which they had been summoned to discuss. But George refused to say a word until the officers of the plate ships were safe under hatches; and a long interval now elapsed during which the anxiety and apprehension of the alcalde and his associates visibly increased, which was precisely the effect that the astute young captain desired to produce. At length, however, certain sounds from the deck outside reached the ears of those in the cabin, announcing the arrival of the men from the fleet, while other sounds, especially those of Spanish voices raised high in angry protest, proclaimed, a little later, that the new arrivals were being conducted below somewhat against their will; and finally Dyer appeared in the doorway with the information that the Spanish sailors had been taken below and were safe under guard; whereupon George rose to his feet and, addressing his visitors in his best Spanish, said:

“Now, señors, every precaution that we could think of has been taken to insure the undisturbed discussion of the business which has brought me and my compatriots to San Juan de Ulua; with your permission, therefore, we will proceed.”

Chapter Eight.How George proceeded to deal with the Authorities of San Juan.An uneasy stir among his audience followed this brief introduction, showing clearly the highly-wrought condition of the Spaniards’ nerves as they leaned forward in their seats and fixed their eyes intently upon the speaker’s face. To still further increase the tension betrayed in the faces and attitudes of his audience, George paused impressively for a few seconds, and then resumed:“A year ago,” said he, “seven ships, storm torn and shattered, put into this harbour in order to refit. They were manned by Englishmen, fellow-countrymen of my own and those with me. They had been engaged in lawful and peaceful trade with various ports along the Main, and entered this harbour with the utmost confidence, secure in the conviction that, having committed no offence, they might implicitly rely upon Spanish honour. When they arrived, they found twelve defenceless plate ships, laden with gold and silver, in the harbour; and had they been so disposed my countrymen could have seized those ships, or as many of them as they chose to take, and sailed away in them, leaving their own damaged craft behind them; and nobody could have said them nay. But my countrymen were traders, not pirates; and great though the temptation must have been, they left those galleons alone, asking only the hospitality of your harbour and permission to refit their ships without molestation. Also when, upon the day after the arrival of the English ships, the remainder of your plate fleet and its convoy appeared off this port, my countrymen could have kept them outside, had they so chosen, with the result that every ship would have been lost in the next gale that might arise.Youknew, as well as did my own countrymen, the tremendous risk and peril to which those enormously rich ships would have been exposed, had they been prevented from entering the harbour; and you hastened to arrange a convention with the English whereby your own ships were to be permitted to enter the port, while the English were to be allowed to refit their vessels without hindrance or molestation. Is all this true, señors, or have I misstated any part of the story, so far?”George paused for a reply; but for a full minute or more there was no response. Then at last the alcalde slowly rose to his feet and stretching forth his right hand deprecatingly toward the young captain, said:“Most illustrious señor, all that you have said is absolutely true. But before—”“Pardon, señor,” interrupted George. “I have not yet finished. When I have done so I shall be quite prepared to listen courteously and with patience to whatever you may be pleased to say.“In accordance with the terms of that convention the English were permitted to work for three days at the dismantling of their ships in preparation for the work of refitting—and then, señors, without a word or hint of warning, at the very instant when they were least able to defend themselves, you treacherously fell upon them; with the result that more than three hundred Englishmen were slain, four of their ships were either captured or destroyed, many Englishmen were taken prisoners, and the residue were driven to sea in their least dismantled ships, short of food and water, to sink or swim as the fates might decide. One of the ships which effected her escape afterward sank, and with her went the entire proceeds of the voyage, while the other two, riddled and torn by Spanish shot, treacherously fired, only reached England after a voyage of incredible difficulty, toil, and suffering. Now, señors, the object of my visit to San Juan de Ulua is to avenge that treacherous attack upon my fellow-countrymen, to exact ample compensation therefor and for all the loss and suffering attendant upon it, and to demand the release of those who fell into your hands upon that occasion. If you have aught to urge by way of excuse for, or justification of, your treachery, I am willing to hear it and give it my most careful consideration.”Again silence, tense and electric, prevailed in the cabin at the conclusion of the young English captain’s indictment, the alcalde and his companions staring helplessly at one another as each groped for something, some sign or suggestion, upon which to frame a reply to the charges which they knew only too well to be true. At length one of the party, seemingly unable to any longer endure the tension, rose slowly to his feet and, addressing George, said:“Señor Capitano, it is not possible for us to deny the truth of the charges which you have brought against us; to our shame and sorrow we are obliged to admit that all you have said is only too true. Yet, señor, in self-defence, I submit that, individually, none of us who are here assembled is to blame for the occurrence to which you have referred, and therefore I contend that you cannot, in justice, hold us, or any one of us, responsible for it. We, who now sit here in the cabin of your ship, were all present in San Juan de Ulua when the attack upon your countrymen took place, and I am confident that I am expressing the opinion of my fellow-citizens as well as of myself in saying that we one and all deplored and were ashamed of it, and would have prevented it, had it been possible. But, señor, the citizens of San Juan had no voice in the matter; we were not consulted; we were not even informed of what was about to happen; the whole affair was the conception of his Excellency the Viceroy, and the attack was organised and carried out at his instigation and order by the military and naval forces under his command; the citizens took no part in it, so far as I am aware; or, if any of them did so, it was only the comparatively few lawless ones who are to be found in every community. Therefore, señor, I contend that your quarrel, which I admit to be just, is not with the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of San Juan, but with his Excellency the Viceroy, who ordered the attack, and the military and naval officials who carried it out.”A low murmur of approval and agreement ran round the assembly as the speaker resumed his seat, and then there ensued a pause while George waited to see whether anyone else had anything to say. Presently, in response to the glance of inquiry with which he regarded the various members of the assemblage, first one and then another arose and briefly remarked that he fully concurred in what his compatriot had so well said, until nearly, if not quite, all had expressed approval.“Very well, señors,” responded George, when at length he found that no one had anything to add, “I am willing to accept your collective assurance that the citizens of San Juan as a whole are guiltless of all participation in, or approval of, the treacherous and unjustifiable attack upon my countrymen of which I complain; therefore it follows that the local representatives of the Spanish Government are the responsible parties, and it is with them that I must settle the account. As I have already informed you, I am here to demand the fullest and most ample reparation for the outrage of which I complain, and for all loss and damage attendant upon it; and I ask you, do you think it in the least degree probable that the Viceroy will peaceably concede my demands? If he will not, I shall exact them by force of arms; and in that case I warn you all that it will be very difficult, if not indeed impossible, for me to discriminate between public and private property; it will therefore be for you, señor”—bowing to the alcalde—“to use your best efforts to induce the Viceroy and those under him to arrange an amicable settlement with me; for otherwise it may be necessary for me to, among other measures, bombard your town!”“Nay, nay, señor; not that, not that, I pray you!” exclaimed the alcalde, starting to his feet in great agitation. “Think, most Illustrious, think of the many innocent lives, of the women and children, who must inevitably perish if you resort to such a bar—such a—an—extreme measure as that which you threaten.”“I do think of it, señor alcalde,” answered George; “but I think also of my fellow-countrymen who died here as a consequence of Spanish treachery, and also of those others who are at this moment lying captive and pining in your dungeons; and the latter thoughts render me inflexible. I will not fire a single shot at your town if I can help it; and it must be your task, señor, to so conduct matters and represent them to the Viceroy, that it shall be unnecessary for me to resort to such an extreme measure.”“I will gladly do my utmost, most noble señor, to carry out such instructions as you may be pleased to give me,” answered the alcalde.“That is well,” said George. “I want you to convey to the Viceroy—by the way, where is the Viceroy? Are you here as his representative?”“Nay, not so, señor,” answered the alcalde. “His Excellency is at present in the city of Mexico. The Commandant of the military lies in his house, sick of a fever and quite unable to transact business; and that is why I am here.”“Um!” commented George. “That makes it rather awkward—for you, I am afraid, señor.” He considered a little, and then asked: “How long would it take a well-mounted messenger to proceed to the city of Mexico with a message, and return with an answer?”“Six days at the very least, señor; the roads are very bad,” was the reply.“Then that rules the Viceroy out of the question,” said George, “for I cannot spare the time to send messages backward and forward a six days’ journey. Now, as to the military Commandant: you say that he is too ill to transact business. Is there not a sub-commandant, or some such official, with whom I can deal?”“There is, of course, the Captain of Soldiers, señor,” answered the alcalde. “But I come next in rank to the Commandant.”“Then,” said George, “it is clear that you, señor, are the official with whom I must deal; and if you are unwilling to bear the entire responsibility, you must e’en share it with the military captain. Now, these are my demands, which I will presently embody in a written document, in order that you may have something to show when the time comes for you to reckon with the Viceroy.“First: I claim one millionpezosof gold to cover the loss of ships and treasure resulting to my countrymen through the Viceroy’s treacherous attack upon them. Stay a moment, señor, that is only the beginning of my demands,”—as the alcalde half rose to his feet, protestingly.“Secondly: I will put down the number of Englishmen slain on that occasion at, let us say, three hundred and fifty. For the benefit of those who were dependent upon those men I demand one thousand goldpezoseach, or three hundred and fifty thousand in all.“Thirdly: I demand the release of every Englishman now in your hands, with certain provisos concerning them, which I will make known when they have been delivered into my hands.“And lastly: I will retain these twelve gentlemen, your companions, as hostages on board my ship, to guard against any further treachery; the understanding being that upon the first sign of anything of the kind, I hang them, one after the other, at my yardAs one man the unhappy thirteen sprang to their feet, and for a few minutes the cabin was vociferous with their protests. Saint Leger stood listening with perfect calmness to the storm as it raged around him, and his absolute imperturbability seemed at length to have a tranquillising effect upon his unwilling guests, for, finally, realising that what they said produced not the slightest visible effect upon him, they resumed their seats one after another, and eventually peace was restored, the party waiting eagerly to hear what reply might be forthcoming. Then George once more spoke.“I think, señors,” he said, “that you are alarming yourselves quite unnecessarily—unless indeed you feel that you are unable to rely upon the good faith of your fellow-countrymen. For your safety depends entirely upon that. So long as they can be content to deal straightforwardly with me, no harm shall happen to you; it is only in the event of treachery that you will have anything to fear, and surely you can trust to your friend the alcalde to take all the steps needful to prevent anything of that kind.”“I will do my very utmost in that direction,” interposed the alcalde. “It is only the injudicious activity of the soldiery that we really need fear; and I think it will be well, Señor Capitano, for you to permit my colleagues here to prepare a joint letter setting forth the fact of their detention by you as hostages for the good behaviour of all, and the unhappy consequences which must result to them from ill-advised action on the part of any one; so that I may have documentary evidence to exhibit in confirmation of my own statement, if I find such confirmation needful. As to your demands, señor, it will, of course, be impossible for me to concede any of them upon my own unsupported authority; in the absence of his Excellency, the Viceroy, and in view of your refusal to afford time for communication with him, I must discuss the situation with such of the authorities as are immediately accessible, and abide by their decision, whatever it may be. There is one matter, however, to which I may as well refer at once, since it will have to be dealt with sooner or later, and that is, the release of the prisoners taken upon the occasion of the ill-advised attack upon your countrymen last year. I approach the subject with the utmost reluctance, for I fear that what I have to say will be very ill received by you. I must say it, however; and it is this: it will be quite impossible for us to comply with that condition in its entirety, for the best of all reasons, namely, that only a very small number of them still remain in our hands.”“What, then, has become of the others?” demanded George, in a low, tense voice, the significance of which caused a visible shudder to thrill through his audience.“I very deeply regret to say, most illustrious señor—and I beg you at the outset to understand that no one here is in the very remotest degree responsible for the deplorable fact which I have to state—that some of them are—dead, while others have been condemned to the galleys and are—I greatly fear—completely lost sight of by this time,” replied the alcalde, in great trepidation, which was fully shared by his twelve companions.For a few moments that seemed ages to the quaking Spaniards sitting there, George remained silent, his burning gaze searching face after face questioningly, and more than one present, knowing the nature of the revelation that must now very soon come, seemed to already feel a rope tightening about his neck.At length, when the silence had become almost intolerable, George spoke again, still with ominous calmness and quietness. Leaning forward across the table, with his eyes steadfastly fixed upon those of the alcalde, he said:“Your reply, señor, sounds curiously significant, and impels me to demand further information. Can you, by any chance, inform me how many of those men are dead, what were their names, and what was the cause and nature of their death?”“No, señor, I cannot answer your question categorically at the present moment,” replied the alcalde. “All that I can tell you, now, is that some of them died of the wounds which they received in the fight, some died of disease, and the rest—perished—in the—Inquisition—or linger still within its walls. But records, of course, exist from which it will no doubt be possible to furnish you with all details.”“So,” commented George, after another terrible silence, “some perished in the Inquisition—or linger still within its walls. Can you tell me, señor, how they chanced to get into the power of the Inquisition?”“Certainly, señor,” answered the alcalde, with alacrity, believing that he saw his way to clear himself and his colleagues from blame. “Upon their capture, they were naturally at first confined in prison by order of the military authorities. From thence some of them—a few—were sent to the galleys, some—as I just now had the honour to mention to you, died in prison of their wounds, and the remainder were claimed by the Chief Inquisitor.”“I see,” commented George. “Yes, I think I begin to understand, and see my way. Now, señor, I will furnish you with pens and paper, and you can proceed to draft the document to which you just now referred, while I place on record the nature and extent of my claims. When we have done that, I will go ashore with you, taking with me a party of armed men, accompanied by whom I purpose to call at your Inquisition and remove from thence any Englishmen whom I may find within its walls. I have decided to take this step, not only to save time, but also because, having seen something of your fellow-countrymen in Old Spain, I know the extreme reluctance with which you would regard any suggestion of mine that you should bring pressure of any kind to bear upon your own clergy, therefore I will relieve you of all embarrassment on that score by personally assuming the responsibility. It will also probably be necessary that I should have an interview with the commander of your military forces, as I presume that he is the official who will be able to furnish me with the names of the Englishmen captured, with particulars of the manner in which they were disposed of. Indeed, upon second thoughts, I am inclined to believe that he is the man upon whom I ought first to call; and since I presume that it will be necessary for you also to call upon him—in the interests of your friends here—we will make the call together.”So saying George produced writing materials, and, handing a liberal supply to the alcalde, seated himself at the table and proceeded to enumerate in writing the several demands which he had already made by word of mouth, quite undisturbed by the excited discussion which was proceeding among the Spaniards as to the precise terms in which their own document should be worded so as to render it as impressive as possible to those to whom it might be necessary to exhibit it. His own work was soon done, and a copy taken for retention and reference, if needful; and then he sat patiently for nearly half-an-hour until the hostages’ letter had been drafted to their satisfaction, and duly signed. Next, having formally handed his written demand to the alcalde, he invited the latter to follow him out on deck, where, summoning Basset, the captain of the soldiers, and Dyer, the pilot, he issued to them certain instructions. Then, turning to the alcalde, who had stood by, listening, but understanding nothing of what was being said, George remarked:“Señor Alvarez, as you have just seen, I have issued certain instructions to two of my officers, and they are these. Don Ricardo Basset, my military commandant, I have instructed to muster ten of his soldiers, fully armed and equipped, to accompany me ashore, under him, as a body guard. And to Don Roberto Dyer, my lieutenant, I have given instructions that the gentlemen whom I have considered it necessary to retain as hostages are to be treated with the utmost possible courtesy, so long as all matters go well, but that upon the slightest sign or indication of treachery upon the part of your countrymen, either ashore or afloat, he is to hang them, one after the other, at those yard-arms, up there. Also, he is to keep his guns trained upon the town and, in the event of none of the landing party returning before sunset, open fire upon it forthwith. I have explained these matters to you in order that you may realise that upon you, and upon the success with which you are able to impress upon your compatriots the absolute necessity for complete submission, depends the lives of the hostages whom you are leaving behind you. Ah! here comes Señor Basset with his guard; and I see that the boat is also ready; therefore, as there may be much to be done between this and sunset, we will go as soon as you are ready, señor.”Whereupon Don Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, hurried back to the great state cabin to reassure and bid farewell to the hostages, and then, returning to the deck, accompanied George to the boat, where Basset and his men had already taken their places; and the party pushed off and headed for the landing place.Although it was a city, San Juan was, at this period of its history, but a very small place, of little more than a square mile in area, with only two streets at all worthy of the name, these two streets traversing each other at right angles and crossing in the centre of the city, the junction of the two being at the Grand Plaza, or Square, one side of which was occupied by the Cathedral, while the other three sides were given up to the Government and Municipal Buildings. It was to one of these last, a large and imposing building with the arms of Spain boldly sculptured upon its pediment, that the alcalde conducted the little party of Englishmen, and which he entered alone, after apologising elaborately for doing so, upon the plea that it would greatly facilitate matters if he were permitted to first see Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant, and explain to him the situation. George agreed with him that this might be so, and patiently took up his stand outside, waiting, in company with Basset and his squad of soldiers, in the shadow of the building until he should be summoned to enter. And meanwhile the party became objects of curiosity and by no means friendly comment to a rapidly increasing crowd, chiefly of men of the labouring class, who came to gaze curiously upon the little knot of resolute-looking Englishmen who returned their gaze so fearlessly, blowing their lighted matches occasionally and handling their muskets in significant fashion when the mob showed signs of becoming rather too demonstrative.At length, after an absence of nearly twenty minutes, the alcalde re-appeared and, with further apologies, this time for his prolonged absence, invited George to accompany him into the building for the purpose of being presented to Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant. This gentleman was found installed in a room which partook, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of an office and a barrack-room, with a sentry outside the door, who stolidly saluted the pair as they passed in.Captain Rebiera proved to be a typical Spanish soldier of the period, bluff and hearty, but exceedingly courteous in manner, with, according to his own account, a profound respect and admiration for the English, so far as his knowledge of them extended, yet George quickly came to the conclusion that the good man was suffering from a certain feeling of soreness at the idea of the city, for the safety of which he was responsible, being to all intents and purposes in the power and at the mercy of the exceedingly young man to whom he was introduced. He greeted George courteously, yet with a certain suggestion of restrained antagonism, and then said:“Señor, my friend, Don Juan Alvarez, has very briefly acquainted me with the extraordinary circumstances of your visit to our port, and of the still more extraordinary demands which you have seen fit to make. Now, I may as well mention that, so far as those demands are concerned, it will be quite impossible for me to concede them without first consulting—”“Pardon me, Don Manuel,” interrupted George, who was already beginning to suspect a disposition on the part of this individual at least to set up a system of delay and retardation of proceedings, “I do not think we need enter upon a discussion of my demands as a whole just now. The object of my visit to you is to obtain a list of the names of the Englishmen who fell into your hands last year as a result of your unprovoked attack upon the squadron of my countryman, Admiral Hawkins, and a statement of what has become of them. I presume you can furnish me with this information, can you not?”“No doubt—yes, no doubt I can,” replied Don Manuel, with deliberation. “A search of the records should certainly enable us to discover the information which you require; but of course it will take time. Still, I think I may promise you that in a week from now—”“A week!” exploded George, “A week!” Then he turned to the alcalde, and, calming himself with an effort, said: “Señor, I am afraid that your friend Don Manuel, here, does not realise the urgency of this matter, or the extreme seriousness of the situation. I want the information asked for,now, at once, within the hour at least. Will you have the very great goodness to make this clear to him?”Whereupon the alcalde drew Don Manuel away into a far corner of the room and, with every evidence of extreme agitation, addressed himself earnestly to the soldier for some five minutes or more, at the end of which the pair returned to where George was standing by the table, fidgeting with his sword-hilt. The arguments and remonstrances of the alcalde seemed to have been effective, for upon their return Don Manuel said:“I crave your pardon, most noble señor; I certainly did not understand that the matter was anything like so urgent as it appears to be. I beg that you will be seated, señor, and I will do my best to have the information found for you forthwith.”Then, as George seated himself, the acting Commandant rang a bell, in response to which a messenger appeared, to whom he gave certain instructions, whereupon the man vanished, and Don Manuel, taking a chair on the opposite side of the table to that at which George was sitting, began a somewhat constrained conversation upon indifferent subjects, which was interrupted by the appearance of a servant with wine and three handsome cups of chased silver. Saint Leger, however, coldly but courteously declined refreshments of any kind; he resolved that he would do nothing which could by any possibility be construed into either tacit consent to methods of delay or an acceptance of proffered friendship; he was there as an enemy and an avenger, and he was determined to keep this fact prominently to the fore; consequently the constraint rapidly grew until, so far as Don Manuel at least was concerned, it became unendurable, and, rising, he begged that his visitors would excuse him, upon the plea that he desired to expedite matters by personally directing the search for the required information.And apparently the stimulus of his presence was successful, for after an absence of about a quarter of an hour he returned, bearing in his hand a book between the pages of which slips of paper had been inserted to mark the positions of certain entries.“There,” he exclaimed, in a tone of satisfaction, as he laid the book upon the table and opened it, “by a stroke of singular good fortune, señor, we have been able to at once lay our hands upon the record which will furnish you with the information you require. Here, for instance, is the first entry, giving the names of the Englishmen who were captured upon the occasion to which you refer. They number forty-three, and their names are as follows.” He proceeded to read out the names of the unfortunate ones, among which occurred that of Hubert Saint Leger—“a namesake of your own, señor,” commented Don Manuel. “Was he, perchance, a relative of yours?”“He was my brother, señor,” answered George, tersely. “Read on, if you please.”The end of the list was soon reached; and then George said: “I am obliged to you, señor. Now, in the first place, I must trouble you for a copy of that list, with a statement opposite each name setting forth the manner in which that person was dealt with.”“Certainly, señor,” answered Don Manuel, politely; “that information also I believe we can afford you. If you will permit me I will summon my clerk to prepare the list you require.”George bowed his acquiescence; the clerk was sent for; and after about an hour’s work the list was completed and handed to the young Englishman, who took it and, having glanced carefully through it, said:“I am obliged to you, Don Manuel. I see that, of the forty-three prisoners taken, ten died of their wounds, in prison; seventeen, of whom my brother was one, were sentenced to the galleys, and sixteen were claimed by your Inquisition. Can you afford me any further information with regard to the seventeen who were sentenced to the galleys; as, for example, the name of the galley to which each man was consigned, and where those galleys may be looked for at the present moment?”“No, señor,” answered Don Manuel, “I regret to say that I cannot. They were all put on board a ship called theSan Mathias, and sent in her to Nombre de Dios, where, if you will hear more of them, you must e’en go and enquire.”“I thank you, señor,” answered George quietly, ignoring a certain suggestion of insolence in the other’s concluding remark. “And now, as to the sixteen who were surrendered to the Inquisition. What can you tell me concerning them?”“Nothing, señor,” answered Don Manuel, at length displaying some signs of uneasiness. “When the Holy Office claims a man, that man disappears from the public ken, generally for ever; or if he is seen again it is only when he figures in theauto-da-fé, dressed in a San Benito. Pardon, Señor Capitano, but this is a matter upon which I can afford you no information, and which I must absolutely refuse to discuss with you, or anyone.”“Very well,” said George, “be it so. But I suppose you will have no objection to inform me whereabout the Inquisition building is to be found?”“Where it is to be found?” reiterated Don Manuel. “Why assuredly—. But stay. What is your object in requiring that particular bit of information, señor?”“Merely that I have business there, a call to make,” answered George, imperturbably.“Business! a call!” reiterated the soldier. “Surely, señor, it is not possible that you, a heretic, intend to force your sinful way into the presence of the holy fathers, and to—to—. Saints and angels! I will be no party to such a blasphemous proceeding. If that be your intention, señor, seek your information elsewhere; I will not imperil my soul by assisting, in ever so indirect a manner, an act of sacrilege.”“As you will, señor,” answered George, calmly. “But I would have you remember that by delaying me in the performance of the task which I have undertaken, you are jeopardising the city and all in it. If I am delayed—”“Pray say no more, noble señor,” interrupted the alcalde. “There is nothing to be gained, Don Manuel, by withholding from the illustrious Adelantado the information which he seeks; for if you will not give it, others will. And—a word in your ear, señor. If anything should happen to these Englishmen while they are in the city, their comrades will most fearfully avenge themselves upon us. They have left us no room to doubt what will happen in such a case, and they are the kind of men who will carry out their threats to the very last letter. Therefore, see to it, my friend, that steps are taken to prevent your soldiery from interfering with or molesting them in any way. For, should anything untoward happen, you will be held responsible. Now, I have warned you. See to it!”“Bueno! señor alcalde, you are my superior, and since those are your orders, I will obey them,” answered Don Manuel. “Nevertheless,” he continued, “if the Commandant were well enough to take the command, I know what he would do. He would arrest and imprison these audacious strangers, and defy their comrades to do their worst. Moreover, señor, I should not like to be in your shoes when the news of this disgraceful business reaches the ears of his Excellency the Viceroy.”And, so saying, he bowed with exaggerated politeness to George and the alcalde, and with a fierce twist of his moustache strode swaggeringly out of the room.

An uneasy stir among his audience followed this brief introduction, showing clearly the highly-wrought condition of the Spaniards’ nerves as they leaned forward in their seats and fixed their eyes intently upon the speaker’s face. To still further increase the tension betrayed in the faces and attitudes of his audience, George paused impressively for a few seconds, and then resumed:

“A year ago,” said he, “seven ships, storm torn and shattered, put into this harbour in order to refit. They were manned by Englishmen, fellow-countrymen of my own and those with me. They had been engaged in lawful and peaceful trade with various ports along the Main, and entered this harbour with the utmost confidence, secure in the conviction that, having committed no offence, they might implicitly rely upon Spanish honour. When they arrived, they found twelve defenceless plate ships, laden with gold and silver, in the harbour; and had they been so disposed my countrymen could have seized those ships, or as many of them as they chose to take, and sailed away in them, leaving their own damaged craft behind them; and nobody could have said them nay. But my countrymen were traders, not pirates; and great though the temptation must have been, they left those galleons alone, asking only the hospitality of your harbour and permission to refit their ships without molestation. Also when, upon the day after the arrival of the English ships, the remainder of your plate fleet and its convoy appeared off this port, my countrymen could have kept them outside, had they so chosen, with the result that every ship would have been lost in the next gale that might arise.Youknew, as well as did my own countrymen, the tremendous risk and peril to which those enormously rich ships would have been exposed, had they been prevented from entering the harbour; and you hastened to arrange a convention with the English whereby your own ships were to be permitted to enter the port, while the English were to be allowed to refit their vessels without hindrance or molestation. Is all this true, señors, or have I misstated any part of the story, so far?”

George paused for a reply; but for a full minute or more there was no response. Then at last the alcalde slowly rose to his feet and stretching forth his right hand deprecatingly toward the young captain, said:

“Most illustrious señor, all that you have said is absolutely true. But before—”

“Pardon, señor,” interrupted George. “I have not yet finished. When I have done so I shall be quite prepared to listen courteously and with patience to whatever you may be pleased to say.

“In accordance with the terms of that convention the English were permitted to work for three days at the dismantling of their ships in preparation for the work of refitting—and then, señors, without a word or hint of warning, at the very instant when they were least able to defend themselves, you treacherously fell upon them; with the result that more than three hundred Englishmen were slain, four of their ships were either captured or destroyed, many Englishmen were taken prisoners, and the residue were driven to sea in their least dismantled ships, short of food and water, to sink or swim as the fates might decide. One of the ships which effected her escape afterward sank, and with her went the entire proceeds of the voyage, while the other two, riddled and torn by Spanish shot, treacherously fired, only reached England after a voyage of incredible difficulty, toil, and suffering. Now, señors, the object of my visit to San Juan de Ulua is to avenge that treacherous attack upon my fellow-countrymen, to exact ample compensation therefor and for all the loss and suffering attendant upon it, and to demand the release of those who fell into your hands upon that occasion. If you have aught to urge by way of excuse for, or justification of, your treachery, I am willing to hear it and give it my most careful consideration.”

Again silence, tense and electric, prevailed in the cabin at the conclusion of the young English captain’s indictment, the alcalde and his companions staring helplessly at one another as each groped for something, some sign or suggestion, upon which to frame a reply to the charges which they knew only too well to be true. At length one of the party, seemingly unable to any longer endure the tension, rose slowly to his feet and, addressing George, said:

“Señor Capitano, it is not possible for us to deny the truth of the charges which you have brought against us; to our shame and sorrow we are obliged to admit that all you have said is only too true. Yet, señor, in self-defence, I submit that, individually, none of us who are here assembled is to blame for the occurrence to which you have referred, and therefore I contend that you cannot, in justice, hold us, or any one of us, responsible for it. We, who now sit here in the cabin of your ship, were all present in San Juan de Ulua when the attack upon your countrymen took place, and I am confident that I am expressing the opinion of my fellow-citizens as well as of myself in saying that we one and all deplored and were ashamed of it, and would have prevented it, had it been possible. But, señor, the citizens of San Juan had no voice in the matter; we were not consulted; we were not even informed of what was about to happen; the whole affair was the conception of his Excellency the Viceroy, and the attack was organised and carried out at his instigation and order by the military and naval forces under his command; the citizens took no part in it, so far as I am aware; or, if any of them did so, it was only the comparatively few lawless ones who are to be found in every community. Therefore, señor, I contend that your quarrel, which I admit to be just, is not with the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of San Juan, but with his Excellency the Viceroy, who ordered the attack, and the military and naval officials who carried it out.”

A low murmur of approval and agreement ran round the assembly as the speaker resumed his seat, and then there ensued a pause while George waited to see whether anyone else had anything to say. Presently, in response to the glance of inquiry with which he regarded the various members of the assemblage, first one and then another arose and briefly remarked that he fully concurred in what his compatriot had so well said, until nearly, if not quite, all had expressed approval.

“Very well, señors,” responded George, when at length he found that no one had anything to add, “I am willing to accept your collective assurance that the citizens of San Juan as a whole are guiltless of all participation in, or approval of, the treacherous and unjustifiable attack upon my countrymen of which I complain; therefore it follows that the local representatives of the Spanish Government are the responsible parties, and it is with them that I must settle the account. As I have already informed you, I am here to demand the fullest and most ample reparation for the outrage of which I complain, and for all loss and damage attendant upon it; and I ask you, do you think it in the least degree probable that the Viceroy will peaceably concede my demands? If he will not, I shall exact them by force of arms; and in that case I warn you all that it will be very difficult, if not indeed impossible, for me to discriminate between public and private property; it will therefore be for you, señor”—bowing to the alcalde—“to use your best efforts to induce the Viceroy and those under him to arrange an amicable settlement with me; for otherwise it may be necessary for me to, among other measures, bombard your town!”

“Nay, nay, señor; not that, not that, I pray you!” exclaimed the alcalde, starting to his feet in great agitation. “Think, most Illustrious, think of the many innocent lives, of the women and children, who must inevitably perish if you resort to such a bar—such a—an—extreme measure as that which you threaten.”

“I do think of it, señor alcalde,” answered George; “but I think also of my fellow-countrymen who died here as a consequence of Spanish treachery, and also of those others who are at this moment lying captive and pining in your dungeons; and the latter thoughts render me inflexible. I will not fire a single shot at your town if I can help it; and it must be your task, señor, to so conduct matters and represent them to the Viceroy, that it shall be unnecessary for me to resort to such an extreme measure.”

“I will gladly do my utmost, most noble señor, to carry out such instructions as you may be pleased to give me,” answered the alcalde.

“That is well,” said George. “I want you to convey to the Viceroy—by the way, where is the Viceroy? Are you here as his representative?”

“Nay, not so, señor,” answered the alcalde. “His Excellency is at present in the city of Mexico. The Commandant of the military lies in his house, sick of a fever and quite unable to transact business; and that is why I am here.”

“Um!” commented George. “That makes it rather awkward—for you, I am afraid, señor.” He considered a little, and then asked: “How long would it take a well-mounted messenger to proceed to the city of Mexico with a message, and return with an answer?”

“Six days at the very least, señor; the roads are very bad,” was the reply.

“Then that rules the Viceroy out of the question,” said George, “for I cannot spare the time to send messages backward and forward a six days’ journey. Now, as to the military Commandant: you say that he is too ill to transact business. Is there not a sub-commandant, or some such official, with whom I can deal?”

“There is, of course, the Captain of Soldiers, señor,” answered the alcalde. “But I come next in rank to the Commandant.”

“Then,” said George, “it is clear that you, señor, are the official with whom I must deal; and if you are unwilling to bear the entire responsibility, you must e’en share it with the military captain. Now, these are my demands, which I will presently embody in a written document, in order that you may have something to show when the time comes for you to reckon with the Viceroy.

“First: I claim one millionpezosof gold to cover the loss of ships and treasure resulting to my countrymen through the Viceroy’s treacherous attack upon them. Stay a moment, señor, that is only the beginning of my demands,”—as the alcalde half rose to his feet, protestingly.

“Secondly: I will put down the number of Englishmen slain on that occasion at, let us say, three hundred and fifty. For the benefit of those who were dependent upon those men I demand one thousand goldpezoseach, or three hundred and fifty thousand in all.

“Thirdly: I demand the release of every Englishman now in your hands, with certain provisos concerning them, which I will make known when they have been delivered into my hands.

“And lastly: I will retain these twelve gentlemen, your companions, as hostages on board my ship, to guard against any further treachery; the understanding being that upon the first sign of anything of the kind, I hang them, one after the other, at my yard

As one man the unhappy thirteen sprang to their feet, and for a few minutes the cabin was vociferous with their protests. Saint Leger stood listening with perfect calmness to the storm as it raged around him, and his absolute imperturbability seemed at length to have a tranquillising effect upon his unwilling guests, for, finally, realising that what they said produced not the slightest visible effect upon him, they resumed their seats one after another, and eventually peace was restored, the party waiting eagerly to hear what reply might be forthcoming. Then George once more spoke.

“I think, señors,” he said, “that you are alarming yourselves quite unnecessarily—unless indeed you feel that you are unable to rely upon the good faith of your fellow-countrymen. For your safety depends entirely upon that. So long as they can be content to deal straightforwardly with me, no harm shall happen to you; it is only in the event of treachery that you will have anything to fear, and surely you can trust to your friend the alcalde to take all the steps needful to prevent anything of that kind.”

“I will do my very utmost in that direction,” interposed the alcalde. “It is only the injudicious activity of the soldiery that we really need fear; and I think it will be well, Señor Capitano, for you to permit my colleagues here to prepare a joint letter setting forth the fact of their detention by you as hostages for the good behaviour of all, and the unhappy consequences which must result to them from ill-advised action on the part of any one; so that I may have documentary evidence to exhibit in confirmation of my own statement, if I find such confirmation needful. As to your demands, señor, it will, of course, be impossible for me to concede any of them upon my own unsupported authority; in the absence of his Excellency, the Viceroy, and in view of your refusal to afford time for communication with him, I must discuss the situation with such of the authorities as are immediately accessible, and abide by their decision, whatever it may be. There is one matter, however, to which I may as well refer at once, since it will have to be dealt with sooner or later, and that is, the release of the prisoners taken upon the occasion of the ill-advised attack upon your countrymen last year. I approach the subject with the utmost reluctance, for I fear that what I have to say will be very ill received by you. I must say it, however; and it is this: it will be quite impossible for us to comply with that condition in its entirety, for the best of all reasons, namely, that only a very small number of them still remain in our hands.”

“What, then, has become of the others?” demanded George, in a low, tense voice, the significance of which caused a visible shudder to thrill through his audience.

“I very deeply regret to say, most illustrious señor—and I beg you at the outset to understand that no one here is in the very remotest degree responsible for the deplorable fact which I have to state—that some of them are—dead, while others have been condemned to the galleys and are—I greatly fear—completely lost sight of by this time,” replied the alcalde, in great trepidation, which was fully shared by his twelve companions.

For a few moments that seemed ages to the quaking Spaniards sitting there, George remained silent, his burning gaze searching face after face questioningly, and more than one present, knowing the nature of the revelation that must now very soon come, seemed to already feel a rope tightening about his neck.

At length, when the silence had become almost intolerable, George spoke again, still with ominous calmness and quietness. Leaning forward across the table, with his eyes steadfastly fixed upon those of the alcalde, he said:

“Your reply, señor, sounds curiously significant, and impels me to demand further information. Can you, by any chance, inform me how many of those men are dead, what were their names, and what was the cause and nature of their death?”

“No, señor, I cannot answer your question categorically at the present moment,” replied the alcalde. “All that I can tell you, now, is that some of them died of the wounds which they received in the fight, some died of disease, and the rest—perished—in the—Inquisition—or linger still within its walls. But records, of course, exist from which it will no doubt be possible to furnish you with all details.”

“So,” commented George, after another terrible silence, “some perished in the Inquisition—or linger still within its walls. Can you tell me, señor, how they chanced to get into the power of the Inquisition?”

“Certainly, señor,” answered the alcalde, with alacrity, believing that he saw his way to clear himself and his colleagues from blame. “Upon their capture, they were naturally at first confined in prison by order of the military authorities. From thence some of them—a few—were sent to the galleys, some—as I just now had the honour to mention to you, died in prison of their wounds, and the remainder were claimed by the Chief Inquisitor.”

“I see,” commented George. “Yes, I think I begin to understand, and see my way. Now, señor, I will furnish you with pens and paper, and you can proceed to draft the document to which you just now referred, while I place on record the nature and extent of my claims. When we have done that, I will go ashore with you, taking with me a party of armed men, accompanied by whom I purpose to call at your Inquisition and remove from thence any Englishmen whom I may find within its walls. I have decided to take this step, not only to save time, but also because, having seen something of your fellow-countrymen in Old Spain, I know the extreme reluctance with which you would regard any suggestion of mine that you should bring pressure of any kind to bear upon your own clergy, therefore I will relieve you of all embarrassment on that score by personally assuming the responsibility. It will also probably be necessary that I should have an interview with the commander of your military forces, as I presume that he is the official who will be able to furnish me with the names of the Englishmen captured, with particulars of the manner in which they were disposed of. Indeed, upon second thoughts, I am inclined to believe that he is the man upon whom I ought first to call; and since I presume that it will be necessary for you also to call upon him—in the interests of your friends here—we will make the call together.”

So saying George produced writing materials, and, handing a liberal supply to the alcalde, seated himself at the table and proceeded to enumerate in writing the several demands which he had already made by word of mouth, quite undisturbed by the excited discussion which was proceeding among the Spaniards as to the precise terms in which their own document should be worded so as to render it as impressive as possible to those to whom it might be necessary to exhibit it. His own work was soon done, and a copy taken for retention and reference, if needful; and then he sat patiently for nearly half-an-hour until the hostages’ letter had been drafted to their satisfaction, and duly signed. Next, having formally handed his written demand to the alcalde, he invited the latter to follow him out on deck, where, summoning Basset, the captain of the soldiers, and Dyer, the pilot, he issued to them certain instructions. Then, turning to the alcalde, who had stood by, listening, but understanding nothing of what was being said, George remarked:

“Señor Alvarez, as you have just seen, I have issued certain instructions to two of my officers, and they are these. Don Ricardo Basset, my military commandant, I have instructed to muster ten of his soldiers, fully armed and equipped, to accompany me ashore, under him, as a body guard. And to Don Roberto Dyer, my lieutenant, I have given instructions that the gentlemen whom I have considered it necessary to retain as hostages are to be treated with the utmost possible courtesy, so long as all matters go well, but that upon the slightest sign or indication of treachery upon the part of your countrymen, either ashore or afloat, he is to hang them, one after the other, at those yard-arms, up there. Also, he is to keep his guns trained upon the town and, in the event of none of the landing party returning before sunset, open fire upon it forthwith. I have explained these matters to you in order that you may realise that upon you, and upon the success with which you are able to impress upon your compatriots the absolute necessity for complete submission, depends the lives of the hostages whom you are leaving behind you. Ah! here comes Señor Basset with his guard; and I see that the boat is also ready; therefore, as there may be much to be done between this and sunset, we will go as soon as you are ready, señor.”

Whereupon Don Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, hurried back to the great state cabin to reassure and bid farewell to the hostages, and then, returning to the deck, accompanied George to the boat, where Basset and his men had already taken their places; and the party pushed off and headed for the landing place.

Although it was a city, San Juan was, at this period of its history, but a very small place, of little more than a square mile in area, with only two streets at all worthy of the name, these two streets traversing each other at right angles and crossing in the centre of the city, the junction of the two being at the Grand Plaza, or Square, one side of which was occupied by the Cathedral, while the other three sides were given up to the Government and Municipal Buildings. It was to one of these last, a large and imposing building with the arms of Spain boldly sculptured upon its pediment, that the alcalde conducted the little party of Englishmen, and which he entered alone, after apologising elaborately for doing so, upon the plea that it would greatly facilitate matters if he were permitted to first see Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant, and explain to him the situation. George agreed with him that this might be so, and patiently took up his stand outside, waiting, in company with Basset and his squad of soldiers, in the shadow of the building until he should be summoned to enter. And meanwhile the party became objects of curiosity and by no means friendly comment to a rapidly increasing crowd, chiefly of men of the labouring class, who came to gaze curiously upon the little knot of resolute-looking Englishmen who returned their gaze so fearlessly, blowing their lighted matches occasionally and handling their muskets in significant fashion when the mob showed signs of becoming rather too demonstrative.

At length, after an absence of nearly twenty minutes, the alcalde re-appeared and, with further apologies, this time for his prolonged absence, invited George to accompany him into the building for the purpose of being presented to Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant. This gentleman was found installed in a room which partook, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of an office and a barrack-room, with a sentry outside the door, who stolidly saluted the pair as they passed in.

Captain Rebiera proved to be a typical Spanish soldier of the period, bluff and hearty, but exceedingly courteous in manner, with, according to his own account, a profound respect and admiration for the English, so far as his knowledge of them extended, yet George quickly came to the conclusion that the good man was suffering from a certain feeling of soreness at the idea of the city, for the safety of which he was responsible, being to all intents and purposes in the power and at the mercy of the exceedingly young man to whom he was introduced. He greeted George courteously, yet with a certain suggestion of restrained antagonism, and then said:

“Señor, my friend, Don Juan Alvarez, has very briefly acquainted me with the extraordinary circumstances of your visit to our port, and of the still more extraordinary demands which you have seen fit to make. Now, I may as well mention that, so far as those demands are concerned, it will be quite impossible for me to concede them without first consulting—”

“Pardon me, Don Manuel,” interrupted George, who was already beginning to suspect a disposition on the part of this individual at least to set up a system of delay and retardation of proceedings, “I do not think we need enter upon a discussion of my demands as a whole just now. The object of my visit to you is to obtain a list of the names of the Englishmen who fell into your hands last year as a result of your unprovoked attack upon the squadron of my countryman, Admiral Hawkins, and a statement of what has become of them. I presume you can furnish me with this information, can you not?”

“No doubt—yes, no doubt I can,” replied Don Manuel, with deliberation. “A search of the records should certainly enable us to discover the information which you require; but of course it will take time. Still, I think I may promise you that in a week from now—”

“A week!” exploded George, “A week!” Then he turned to the alcalde, and, calming himself with an effort, said: “Señor, I am afraid that your friend Don Manuel, here, does not realise the urgency of this matter, or the extreme seriousness of the situation. I want the information asked for,now, at once, within the hour at least. Will you have the very great goodness to make this clear to him?”

Whereupon the alcalde drew Don Manuel away into a far corner of the room and, with every evidence of extreme agitation, addressed himself earnestly to the soldier for some five minutes or more, at the end of which the pair returned to where George was standing by the table, fidgeting with his sword-hilt. The arguments and remonstrances of the alcalde seemed to have been effective, for upon their return Don Manuel said:

“I crave your pardon, most noble señor; I certainly did not understand that the matter was anything like so urgent as it appears to be. I beg that you will be seated, señor, and I will do my best to have the information found for you forthwith.”

Then, as George seated himself, the acting Commandant rang a bell, in response to which a messenger appeared, to whom he gave certain instructions, whereupon the man vanished, and Don Manuel, taking a chair on the opposite side of the table to that at which George was sitting, began a somewhat constrained conversation upon indifferent subjects, which was interrupted by the appearance of a servant with wine and three handsome cups of chased silver. Saint Leger, however, coldly but courteously declined refreshments of any kind; he resolved that he would do nothing which could by any possibility be construed into either tacit consent to methods of delay or an acceptance of proffered friendship; he was there as an enemy and an avenger, and he was determined to keep this fact prominently to the fore; consequently the constraint rapidly grew until, so far as Don Manuel at least was concerned, it became unendurable, and, rising, he begged that his visitors would excuse him, upon the plea that he desired to expedite matters by personally directing the search for the required information.

And apparently the stimulus of his presence was successful, for after an absence of about a quarter of an hour he returned, bearing in his hand a book between the pages of which slips of paper had been inserted to mark the positions of certain entries.

“There,” he exclaimed, in a tone of satisfaction, as he laid the book upon the table and opened it, “by a stroke of singular good fortune, señor, we have been able to at once lay our hands upon the record which will furnish you with the information you require. Here, for instance, is the first entry, giving the names of the Englishmen who were captured upon the occasion to which you refer. They number forty-three, and their names are as follows.” He proceeded to read out the names of the unfortunate ones, among which occurred that of Hubert Saint Leger—“a namesake of your own, señor,” commented Don Manuel. “Was he, perchance, a relative of yours?”

“He was my brother, señor,” answered George, tersely. “Read on, if you please.”

The end of the list was soon reached; and then George said: “I am obliged to you, señor. Now, in the first place, I must trouble you for a copy of that list, with a statement opposite each name setting forth the manner in which that person was dealt with.”

“Certainly, señor,” answered Don Manuel, politely; “that information also I believe we can afford you. If you will permit me I will summon my clerk to prepare the list you require.”

George bowed his acquiescence; the clerk was sent for; and after about an hour’s work the list was completed and handed to the young Englishman, who took it and, having glanced carefully through it, said:

“I am obliged to you, Don Manuel. I see that, of the forty-three prisoners taken, ten died of their wounds, in prison; seventeen, of whom my brother was one, were sentenced to the galleys, and sixteen were claimed by your Inquisition. Can you afford me any further information with regard to the seventeen who were sentenced to the galleys; as, for example, the name of the galley to which each man was consigned, and where those galleys may be looked for at the present moment?”

“No, señor,” answered Don Manuel, “I regret to say that I cannot. They were all put on board a ship called theSan Mathias, and sent in her to Nombre de Dios, where, if you will hear more of them, you must e’en go and enquire.”

“I thank you, señor,” answered George quietly, ignoring a certain suggestion of insolence in the other’s concluding remark. “And now, as to the sixteen who were surrendered to the Inquisition. What can you tell me concerning them?”

“Nothing, señor,” answered Don Manuel, at length displaying some signs of uneasiness. “When the Holy Office claims a man, that man disappears from the public ken, generally for ever; or if he is seen again it is only when he figures in theauto-da-fé, dressed in a San Benito. Pardon, Señor Capitano, but this is a matter upon which I can afford you no information, and which I must absolutely refuse to discuss with you, or anyone.”

“Very well,” said George, “be it so. But I suppose you will have no objection to inform me whereabout the Inquisition building is to be found?”

“Where it is to be found?” reiterated Don Manuel. “Why assuredly—. But stay. What is your object in requiring that particular bit of information, señor?”

“Merely that I have business there, a call to make,” answered George, imperturbably.

“Business! a call!” reiterated the soldier. “Surely, señor, it is not possible that you, a heretic, intend to force your sinful way into the presence of the holy fathers, and to—to—. Saints and angels! I will be no party to such a blasphemous proceeding. If that be your intention, señor, seek your information elsewhere; I will not imperil my soul by assisting, in ever so indirect a manner, an act of sacrilege.”

“As you will, señor,” answered George, calmly. “But I would have you remember that by delaying me in the performance of the task which I have undertaken, you are jeopardising the city and all in it. If I am delayed—”

“Pray say no more, noble señor,” interrupted the alcalde. “There is nothing to be gained, Don Manuel, by withholding from the illustrious Adelantado the information which he seeks; for if you will not give it, others will. And—a word in your ear, señor. If anything should happen to these Englishmen while they are in the city, their comrades will most fearfully avenge themselves upon us. They have left us no room to doubt what will happen in such a case, and they are the kind of men who will carry out their threats to the very last letter. Therefore, see to it, my friend, that steps are taken to prevent your soldiery from interfering with or molesting them in any way. For, should anything untoward happen, you will be held responsible. Now, I have warned you. See to it!”

“Bueno! señor alcalde, you are my superior, and since those are your orders, I will obey them,” answered Don Manuel. “Nevertheless,” he continued, “if the Commandant were well enough to take the command, I know what he would do. He would arrest and imprison these audacious strangers, and defy their comrades to do their worst. Moreover, señor, I should not like to be in your shoes when the news of this disgraceful business reaches the ears of his Excellency the Viceroy.”

And, so saying, he bowed with exaggerated politeness to George and the alcalde, and with a fierce twist of his moustache strode swaggeringly out of the room.

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