In which we Prepare to Fight the Spaniard
A man came panting down the street.
"Captain Ralph Percy!" he cried. "My master said it was your horse
coming across the neck. The Governor commands your attendance at once,
sir."
"Where is the Governor? Where are all the people?" I demanded.
"At the fort. They are all at the fort or on the bank below. Oh, sirs, a
woeful day for us all!"
"A woeful day!" I exclaimed. "What's the matter?"
The man, whom I recognized as one of the commander's servants, a fellow
with the soul of a French _valet de chambre_, was wild with terror.
"They are at the guns!" he quavered. "Alackaday! What can a few sakers
and demi-culverins do against them?"
"Against _whom_?" I cried.
"They are giving out pikes and cutlasses! Woe's me, the sight of naked
steel hath ever made me sick!"
I drew my dagger and flashed it before him. "Does't make you sick?" I
asked. "You shall be sicker yet, if you do not speak to some purpose."
The fellow shrank back, his eyeballs starting from his head.
"It's a tall ship," he gasped, "a very big ship! It hath ten culverins,
beside fowlers and murderers, sakers, falcons, and bases!"
I took him by the collar and shook him off his feet.
"There are priests on board!" he managed to say as I set him down. "This
time to-morrow we'll all be on the rack! And next week the galleys will
have us!"
"It's the Spaniard at last," I said. "Come on!"
When we reached the river bank before the fort, it was to find confusion
worse confounded. The gates of the palisade were open, and through them
streamed Councillors, Burgesses, and officers, while the bank itself was
thronged with the generality. Ancient planters, Smith's men, Dale's men,
tenants and servants, women and children, including the little eyases we
imported the year before, negroes, Paspaheghs, French _vignerons_, Dutch
sawmill men, Italian glass-workers,--all seethed to and fro, all talked
at once, and all looked down the river. Out of the babel of voices these
words came to us over and over: "The Spaniard!" "The Inquisition!" "The
galleys!" They were the words oftenest heard at that time, when strange
sails hove in sight.
But where was the Spaniard? On the river, hugging the shore, were many
small craft, barges, shallops, sloops, and pinnaces, and beyond them
the masts of the _Truelove_, the _Due Return_, and the _Tiger_, then in
port; on these three, of which the largest, the _Due Return_, was of but
eighty tons burthen, the mariners were running about and the masters
bawling orders. But there was no other ship, no bark, galleon, or
man-of-war, with three tiers of grinning ordnance, and the hated yellow
flag flaunting above.
I sprang from my horse, and, leaving it and Mistress Percy in Sparrow's
charge, hastened up to the fort. As I passed through the palisade I
heard my name called, and, turning, waited for Master Pory to come up.
He was panting and puffing, his jovial face very red.
"I was across the neck of land when I heard the news," he said. "I ran
all the way and am somewhat scant of breath. Here's the devil to pay!"
"It looks another mare's-nest," I replied. "We have cried 'Spaniard!'
pretty often."
"But this time the wolf's here," he answered. "Davies sent a horseman at
a gallop from Algernon with the tidings. He passed the ship, and it was
a very great one. We may thank this dead calm that it did not catch us
unawares."
Within the palisade was noise enough, but more order than without. On
the half-moons commanding the river, gunners were busy about our sakers,
falcons, and three culverins. In one place, West, the commander, was
giving out brigandines, jacks, skulls, muskets, halberds, swords and
longbows; in another, his wife, who was a very Mary Ambree, supervised
the boiling of a great caldron of pitch. Each loophole in palisade and
fort had already its marksman. Through the west port came a horde of
reluctant invaders,--cattle, swine, and poultry,--driven in by yelling
boys.
I made my way through the press to where I saw the Governor, surrounded
by Councillors and Burgesses, sitting on a keg of powder, and issuing
orders at the top of his voice. "Ha, Captain Percy!" he cried as I came
up. "You are in good time, man! You've served your apprenticeship at the
wars. You must teach us how to beat the dons."
"To Englishmen, that comes by nature, sir," I said. "Art sure we are to
have the pleasure?"
"Not a doubt of it this time," he answered. "The ship slipped in past
the point last night. Davies signalled her to stop, and then sent a ball
over her; but she kept on. True, it was too dark to make out much; but
if she were friendly, why did she not stop for castle duties? Moreover,
they say she was of at least five hundred tons, and no ship of that size
hath ever visited these waters. There was no wind, and they sent a man
on at once, hoping to outstrip the enemy and warn us. The man changed
horses at Basse's Choice, and passed the ship about dawn. All he could
tell for the mist was that it was a very great ship, with three tiers of
guns."
"The flag?"
"She carried none."
"Humph!" I said. "It hath a suspicious look. At least we do well to be
ready. We'll give them a warm welcome."
"There are those here who counsel surrender," continued the Governor.
"There's one, at least, who wants the _Tiger_ sent downstream with a
white flag and my sword."
"Where?" I cried. "He's no Englishman, I warrant!"
"As much an Englishman as thou, sir!" called out a gentleman whom I had
encountered before, to wit, Master Edward Sharpless. "It's well enough
for swingebuckler captains, Low Country fire-eaters, to talk of holding
out against a Spanish man-of-war with twice our number of fighting men,
and enough ordnance to batter the town out of existence. Wise men know
when the odds are too heavy!"
"It's well enough for lily-livered, goose-fleshed lawyers to hold their
tongues when men and soldiers talk," I retorted. "We are not making
indentures to the devil, and so have no need of such gentry."
There was a roar of laughter from the captains and gunners, but terror
of the Spaniard had made Master Edward Sharpless bold to all besides.
"They will wipe us off the face of the earth!" he lamented. "There won't
be an Englishman left in America! They'll come close in upon us! They'll
batter down the fort with their culverins; they'll turn all their
swivels, sakers, and falcons upon us; they'll throw into our midst
stinkpots and grenades; they'll mow us down with chain shot! Their
gunners never miss!" His voice rose to a scream, and he shook as with an
ague.
"Are you mad? It's Spain that's to be fought! Spain the rich! Spain the
powerful! Spain the lord of the New World!"
"It's England that fights!" I cried. "For very shame, hold thy tongue!"
"If we surrender at once, they'll let us go!" he whined. "We can take
the small boats and get to the Bermudas. They'll let us go."
"Into the galleys," muttered West.
The craven tried another feint. "Think of the women and children!"
"We do," I said sternly. "Silence, fool!"
The Governor, a brave and honest man, rose from the keg of powder. "All
this is foreign to the matter, Master Sharpless. I think our duty is
clear, be the odds what they may. This is our post, and we will hold it
or die beside it. We are few in number, but we are England in America,
and I think we will remain here. This is the King's fifth kingdom, and
we will keep it for him. We will trust in the Lord and fight it out."
"Amen," I said, and "Amen," said the ring of Councillors and Burgesses
and the armed men beyond.
The hum of voices now rose into excited cries, and the watchman
stationed atop the big culverin called out, "Sail ho!" With one accord
we turned our faces downstream. There was the ship, undoubtedly.
Moreover, a strong breeze had sprung up, blowing from the sea, filling
her white sails, and rapidly lessening the distance between us. As yet
we could only tell that she was indeed a large ship with all sail set.
Through the gates of the palisade now came, pell-mell, the crowd
without. In ten minutes' time the women were in line ready to load the
muskets, the children sheltered as best they might be, the men in ranks,
the gunners at their guns, and the flag up. I had run it up with my own
hand, and as I stood beneath the folds Master Sparrow and my wife came
to my side.
"The women are over there," I said to the latter, "where you had best
betake yourself."
"I prefer to stay here," she answered. "I am not afraid." Her colour was
high, and she held her head up. "My father fought the Armada," she said.
"Get me a sword from that man who is giving them out."
From his coign of vantage the watch now called out: "She's a long
ship,--five hundred tons, anyhow! Lord! the metal that she carries!
She's rase-decked!"
"Then she's Spanish, sure enough!" cried the Governor.
From the crowd of servants, felons, and foreigners rose a great clamour,
and presently we made out Sharpless perched on a cask in their midst and
wildly gesticulating.
"The _Tiger_, the _Truelove_, and the _Due Return_ have swung across
channel!" announced the watch. "They've trained their guns on the
Spaniard!"
The Englishmen cheered, but the bastard crew about Sharpless groaned.
Extreme fear had made the lawyer shameless. "What guns have those
boats?" he screamed. "Two falcons apiece and a handful of muskets, and
they go out against a man-of-war! She'll trample them underfoot! She'll
sink them with a shot apiece! The _Tiger_ is forty tons, and the
_Truelove_ is sixty. You're all mad!"
"Sometimes quality beats quantity," said West.
"Didst ever hear of the _Content_?" sang out a gunner.
"Or of the _Merchant Royal_?" cried another.
"Or of the _Revenge_?" quoth Master Jeremy Sparrow. "Go hang thyself,
coward, or, if you choose, swim out to the Spaniard, and shift from thy
wet doublet and hose into a sanbenito. Let the don come, shoot if he
can, and land if he will! We'll singe his beard in Virginia as we did at
Cales!
'The great _St. Philip_, the pride of the Spaniards,
Was burnt to the bottom and sunk in the sea.
But the _St. Andrew_ and eke the _St. Matthew_,
We took in fight manfully and brought away.'
And so we'll do with this one, my masters! We'll sink her, or we'll take
her and send her against her own galleons and galleasses!
'Dub-a-dub, dub-a-dub, thus strike their drums,
Tantara, tantara, the Englishman comes!'"
His great voice and great presence seized and held the attention of all.
Over his doublet of rusty black he had clapped a yet rustier back and
breast; on his bushy hair rode a headpiece many sizes too small; by his
side was an old broadsword, and over his shoulder a pike. Suddenly, from
gay hardihood his countenance changed to an expression more befitting
his calling. "Our cause is just, my masters!" he cried. "We stand here
not for England alone; we stand for the love of law, for the love of
liberty, for the fear of God, who will not desert His servants and His
cause, nor give over to Anti-Christ this virgin world. This plantation
is the leaven which is to leaven the whole lump, and surely He will hide
it in the hollow of His hand and in the shadow of His wing. God of
battles, hear us! God of England, God of America, aid the children of
the one, the saviours of the other!"
He had dropped the pike to raise his clasped hands to the blue heavens,
but now he lifted it again, threw back his shoulders, and flung up his
head. He laid his hand on the flagstaff, and looked up to the banner
streaming in the breeze. "It looks well so high against the blue,
doesn't it, friends?" he cried genially. "Suppose we keep it there
forever and a day!"
A cheer arose, so loud that it silenced, if it did not convince, the
craven few. As for Master Edward Sharpless, he disappeared behind the
line of women.
The great ship came steadily on, her white sails growing larger and
larger, moment by moment, her tiers of guns more distinct and menacing,
her whole aspect more defiant. Her waist seemed packed with men. But no
streamers, no flag.
A puff of smoke floated up from the deck of the _Tiger_, and a ball from
one of her two tiny falcons passed through the stranger's rigging. A
cheer for the brave little cockboat arose from the English.
"David and his pebble!" exclaimed Master Jeremy Sparrow. "Now for
Goliath's twenty-pounders!"
But no flame and thunder issued from the guns aboard the stranger.
Instead, from her deck there came to us what sounded mightily like a
roar of laughter. Suddenly, from each masthead and yard shot out
streamers of red and blue, up from the poop rose and flaunted in the
wind the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, and with a crash trumpet,
drum, and fife rushed into
"Here's to jolly good ale and old!"
"By the Lord, she's English!" shouted the Governor.
On she came, banners flying, music playing, and inextinguishable
laughter rising from her decks. The _Tiger_, the _Truelove_, and the
_Due Return_ sent no more hailstones against her; they turned and
resolved themselves into her consort. The watch, a grim old sea dog that
had come in with Dale, swung himself down from his post, and came toward
the Governor at a run.
"I know her now, sir!" he shouted. "I was at the winning of Cales, and
she's the _Santa Teresa_, that we took and sent home to the Queen. She
was Spanish once, sir, but she's English now."
The gates were flung open, and the excited people poured out again upon
the river bank. I found myself beside the Governor, whose honest
countenance wore an expression of profound bewilderment.
"What d'ye make of her, Percy?" he said. "The Company doesn't send
servants, felons, 'prentices, or maids in such craft; no, nor officers
or governors, either. It's the King's ship, sure enough, but what is she
doing here?--that's the question. What does she want, and whom does she
bring?"
"We'll soon know," I answered, "for there goes her anchor."
Five minutes later a boat was lowered from the ship, and came swiftly
toward us. The boat had four rowers, and in the stern sat a tall man,
black-bearded, high-coloured, and magnificently dressed. It touched the
sand some two hundred feet from the spot where Governor, Councillors,
officers, and a sprinkling of other sorts stood staring at it, and at
the great ship beyond. The man in the stern leaped out, looked around
him, and then walked toward us. As he walked slowly, we had leisure to
note the richness of his doublet and cloak,--the one slashed, the other
lined with scarlet taffeta,--the arrogance of his mien and gait, and the
superb full-blooded beauty of his face.
"The handsomest man that ever I saw!" ejaculated the Governor.
Master Pory, standing beside him, drew in his breath, then puffed it out
again. "Handsome enough, your Honour," he said, "unless handsome is as
handsome does. That, gentlemen, is my Lord Carnal,--that is the King's
latest favourite."