AND AGAIN THE ROSE OF DEVON
The story of Philip Marsham and of Sir John Bristol, and of the fortune
left by the good Doctor Marsham of Little Grimsby,--how it came to his
grandson and was lost in the war that brought ruin to many a noble
family,--is a tale that may some day be worth the telling. Of that, I
make no promises.
The years that followed were wild and turbulent, but during their
passage Phil chanced upon one reminder and another of his earlier days
of adventuring. He saw once again the long, ranting madman who had
carried the great book. He might not have known the fellow, who was in
a company of Brownists or Anabaptists, or some such people, had he not
heard him crying out in his voice like a cracked trumpet, to the great
wonder and admiration of his fellows, "Never was a man beset with such
diversity of thoughts." There was Jacob, too, who had sneaked away
like a rat on the eve of the day when Tom Jordan's schemes fell about
his ears: Phil once came upon him face to face, but when their eyes
met Jacob slipped round a corner and was gone. He was a subtle man and
wise, and of no intention to be reminded of his days as a pirate.
Philip Marsham went to the war with Sir John Bristol, and fought for
the King, and rose to be a captain; and with the story of Philip
Marsham is interwoven inseparably the story of Anne Bristol and of her
father, Sir John. For Sir John Bristol died at the second battle of
Newbury with his head on Philip Marsham's knees; and in his grief at
losing the brave knight who had befriended him, the lad prayed God for
vengeance on the Roundhead armies.
And yet, though his grief was bitter, he had too just a mind to see
only one side of a great war. Once, when they sent him from the King's
camp on a secret mission, the enemy ran him to cover, and he escaped
them only by doubling back and hiding in the garret of a cottage
where he lay high under the thatch and watched through a dusty little
window the street from the Red Boar Inn down the hill to the distant
meadows, without being himself seen. He heard far away a murmur as
of droning bees. Minutes passed and he heard the drone settle into a
hollow rumble, from which there emerged after a time the remote sound
of rattling drums and the occasional voices of shouting men. Then, of a
sudden, there broke on the air a sound as of distant thunder, in which
he made out a chorus:--
"His staff and rod shall comfort me,
His mantle e'er shall be my shield;
My brimming cup I hold in fee
Of him who rules the battlefield."
The voices of the singing men came booming over the meadows. They were
deep, strong voices and there was that in their volume and fierce
earnestness which made a man shiver.
Phil heard a dog barking; he saw a woman standing in the door of a
cottage; he saw a cloud of dust rise above the meadow; then they came.
First a band of men on foot in steel caps, with their firelocks
shouldered, swinging out in long, firm strides. Then a little group
of kettledrums, hammering away in a fierce rhythm. Then a number of
horsemen, with never a glint of gold on their bridles and never a curl
from under their iron helms. Then, rank behind rank, a solid column of
foot that flowed along the dusty road over hillock and hollow, dark and
sombre, undulating like a torpid stream of something thick and slow
that mightily forces a passage over every obstacle in its way.
They came up the hill, turning neither to right nor to left, up the
hill and over it, and away to the north, where King Charles and all his
armies lay.
It was a fearful sight, for they were stern, determined men. There
was no gallant flippancy in their carriage; there was no lordly show
of ribbands and linen and gold and silver lace. They frowned as they
marched, and looked about them little. They bore so steadily on, they
made one feel they were men of tempered metal, men of no blood and no
flesh, men with no love for the brave adventures of life, but with a
streak of iron in their very souls.
Philip Marsham had heard the men of the Rose of Devon go into battle
with cries and shouting, and laugh when they killed; he had seen old
Sir John Bristol throw back his head proudly and jest with the girls of
the towns on their march; but these were men of another pattern.
He became aware, as he watched them go by--and he then knew the meaning
of fear, safely hidden though he was, behind the dirty and small window
in the gable; for had one man of those thousands found him there, it
would have ended the fighting days of Philip Marsham--he became aware
that here was a courage so stubborn there was no mastering it; that
here was a purposeful strength such as all the wild blades in his
master's camp could never match. Their faces showed it; the marching
rhythm of the never-ending column was alive with it.
Behind the first regiments of infantry, horsemen came, and, at an
interval in the ranks of the cavalry, five men rode together. The eyes
of one, who led the four by a span or two, were bent on the road, and
his face was stern and strong and thoughtful. As Phil watched him,
the first hesitating surmisal became conviction, and long afterward
he learned that he had been right. From his gable window he had seen
Oliver Cromwell go by.
All that afternoon the column streamed on, and in the early darkness
Philip fell asleep to the sound of men marching. In the morning they
were gone, and he went on his way and fulfilled his mission; but though
the King's men fought with a gallantry that never lessened, the cause
of the King was lost, and the day broke when Philip Marsham was ready
to turn his back on England.
So he came a second time to the harbour of Bideford, in Devon, and had
it in his mind to take ship for some distant land where he could forget
the years of his youth and early manhood. He was in the mood, then,
to envy Sir John Bristol and all the gallant company that had died on
the fields of Naseby and Newbury, and of many another great battle;
for he was the King's man, and great houses of the country had fallen,
and many lords and gentlemen whose estates had gone to pay the cost of
Cromwell's wars had as much reason as he, and more, to wonder, at the
sight of deep water, whether it were better to die by one's own hand
or to seek new fortunes beyond the sea.
There were many vessels in the harbour and his gaze wandered over
them, ships and pinks and ketches and a single galliot from the Low
Countries, until his eyes came at last to one of singularly familiar
aspect. He looked at her a long time, then strolled down to the quay
and accosted an aged man who was warming his rheumatic limbs in the sun.
"What ship is that," said Captain Marsham, "which lies yonder, in line
with the house on the farther shore to the right of the three trees?"
The aged man squinted over the harbour to pick up the bearings his
questioner had given him and cleared his throat with a husky cough.
"Why, that," he said, "beës the frigate they call Rose of Devon."
"The Rose of Devon--nay, she cannot be the Rose of Devon!"
"Can and beës. Why does 'ee look so queer, sir?"
"Not the Rose of Devon!"
"Art 'ee addled?" He laughed like a cackling hen. "Aye, an' yon's her
master."
The master turned when the young captain accosted him, and replied,
with reasonable civility, "Yea, the Rose of Devon, Captain Hosmer, at
your service, sir. Passage? Yea, we can take you, but you're a queer
sort to ask passage ere you know whither she sails. Is it murder or
theft?"
"Neither. The old order is changing and I would go abroad."
"To the colonies?"
"They tell me all the colonies are of a piece with these Roundheads
here, and that as many psalms are whined in Boston in New England as in
all the conventicles in London."
He laughed in good humour. "You are rash," said he. "Were I of the
other side, your words might cost you your head. But we're going south
to Barbados, and there you'll find men to your own taste."
Captain Philip Marsham wished no more than that. So he struck a bargain
for passage, and paid with gold, and sailed from England for the second
time in the old Rose of Devon, the dark frigate that by God's grace had
come back to Bideford in the hour when he most needed her.
THE END
* * * * *
THE DARK FRIGATE
_By_ CHARLES BOARDMAN HAWES
The frigate _Rose of Devon_ rescues from a wreck in mid-ocean twelve
men who show their gratitude by seizing the _Rose_, killing her captain
and sailing toward the Caribbean where they hope to plunder Spanish
towns and galleons. Mistaking an English man-of-war for a merchantman,
they are captured and brought back to England for trial. Only one,
an English lad, Philip Marsham, a member of the original crew of the
_Rose_, is acquitted; and he, after adventures in the forces of King
Charles, tires of Cromwell's England and sails for Barbados once more
on the _Rose of Devon_.
"The Dark Frigate" has long been a favorite story for boys and in
1924 was awarded the John Newbery Medal, given annually "for the most
distinguished contribution to American literature for children."
When "The Dark Frigate" was first published F. F. Van deWater in _The
New York Tribune_ said: "No one, we think, has written so perfect a
pirate tale since 'Treasure Island'."
_With frontispiece in full color by_ ANTON OTTO FISCHER
* * * * *
THE MUTINEERS
_By_ CHARLES BOARDMAN HAWES
This rousing pirate story of the Pacific has proved even more popular
than the author's Newbery Prize-winning "The Dark Frigate." Originally
published as an Atlantic Monthly Press Book in 1920, it has delighted
thousands of adventure-loving boys (and girls too!). From the moment
when young Benjamin Lathrop of Salem signs up with Captain Whidden of
the _Island Princess_ the reader embarks on a reading voyage of high
and gleaming excitement.
"There is the atmosphere of the old-time ships and the spirit of the
sailors of a century ago--such as you find in the pages of Dana and
Stevenson.... Here is a story that stands out with distinction among
all the sea stories of many years."--_Boston Herald_
_With frontispiece in full color by_ ANTON OTTO FISCHER
End of Project Gutenberg's The Dark Frigate, by Charles Boardman Hawes