IN WHICH PROVIDENCE, NOT TO BE ALWAYS SCOURGING OF US, PROVIDES US WITH
GOOD ENTERTAINMENT.
After marching best part of an hour we came to a storehouse and farm,
where our guide procured mules (to Lady Biddy's great relief and my
contentment), and with this help we came about eleven o'clock to a small
town, build on the side of a hill, at the mouth of a fair river, and
covered by a stout fortress; and here were we conducted at once to the
house of the governor, which stood in the midst of a fine garden, as
pretty a seat as one could hope to see in such an outlandish part. After
waiting in the courtyard, where we dismounted, some little while, the
servant who had carried a message from our two friends (as I may call
those fellows to whom we owed our lives) came back, and led us through a
gateway into the midst of the garden, where on a fair green lawn, under
the shade of a striped sheet of silk, fastened with colored cords (very
fine) to high palmettos at the four corners of the green, sat half a
dozen gentlemen and a lady about a table, on which was spread a repast
that set my mouth watering. The gentlemen were all very handsomely
dressed in the Spanish mode, and the lady (who was the governor's wife)
was also very richly arrayed in a lace farthingale, but as ugly a woman
of fifty or thereabouts as ever I did see; and particularly insolent,
for ere we had got near her by five yards she held up her hand to bid us
stay; and, clapping a scent-bottle to her hooky nose, put on an
expression of loathing and disgust, as though we had been dirty dogs.
This disdain, however, was by no means obvious in the rest of the
company, who, taking but slight notice of me, did gaze at Lady Biddy as
though they would stare her out of countenance; so that I know not if I
was better pleased with their impudence than with the old tabby's
insolence.
The governor, who was as handsome as his wife was ordinary, with a
snow-white beard and mustaches, but jet black eyebrows over his soft
dark eyes, made a slight inclination of his head to Lady Biddy (as much
as he dared in his wife's presence), and, turning to our friends, spoke
to them, asking (as I guess) how we had fallen into their hands:
whereupon the fellows, with their hats in their hands, very humbly laid
the whole matter before him, the gentlemen listening with growing
astonishment, glancing from the speakers to me, and then to Lady Biddy,
while the governor's wife, fanning herself with a tuft of marabout, from
time to time put in a word to our disadvantage, as I conceived by her
gestures. When the men had made an end of their history, the governor,
turning to me spoke a word or two in Portuguese--for I learnt afterwards
that all the company were Portugals--to which I answered in English till
he stopped me with a shrug of his shoulders, when I tried him in low
Dutch; but he only shook his head at that. Then Lady Biddy, in her
sweet, clear voice, ventured a word or two in Italian, as being
something like the language he spoke. Upon which the governor, with a
very amiable smile, replied in the same tongue, and my lady proceeded in
telling our story.
And now was I heartily glad I had not made myself understood; for I must
have made a sad bungling business of it in comparison with her
performance. I knew not a word of what she said, yet could I not
sufficiently admire her noble calm, her easy self-command, her graceful
tone and gestures, and fearless mien.
I might have pleaded for compassion; she did nothing of the kind. She
told of the wrong we had suffered with no mournful note, but with a tone
of contempt for those who were so base as to abandon the respect due to
her. She spoke in another key of the attack made by the barbarians, for
they were rather to be pitied for a savage cruelty sprung from their
misfortunes: she turned with a gracious inclination of her head to the
two men in acknowledging their courtesy, and then, facing the governor's
wife, she seemed to be demanding of her the courtesy of one lady towards
another; and in conclusion, with a deep curtsey, thanked the governor in
advance for the hospitality which the representative of a proud king
would undoubtedly extend to the unfortunate subjects of a
brother-sovereign thrown upon his coast.
I knew, I say, not one word of the tongue she spoke; yet had I been as
proficient in the language as she, I could not have better understood
that which she was saying, and this simply by the consummate eloquence
of her manner.
Her speech ended, the governor rose, and before he spoke placed his
chair for her use, standing erect until the servant ran forward with
another chair for him and one for me. Indeed, her speech had a marvelous
effect upon the whole company. The governor's lady absolutely smiled
upon us--for Lady Biddy had not omitted to state that she was noble by
birth, and that I was her cousin--and the gentlemen, taking shame for
their impudence, were now less prepared to meet her eyes than she
theirs. All this did comfort me greatly to perceive, and my heart
swelled with pride for that I was the companion of such an excellent and
beautiful lady.
The governor, being seated, made a little speech in an amiable tone,
which Lady Biddy at once translated to me, that he might see I was to be
her partner in good fortune as I had been in ill; and the gist of his
matter, divested of fine compliments, was that as soon as he had
properly fulfilled his personal duty as a host, he should take proper
means to convey us to our country.
"Tell him," says I, "that though I shall be happy to leave his roof a
debtor, yet I do fear we shall have to cry quite before I go."
Lady Biddy looked perplexed, but she gave my message.
"The governor wishes to know," says she, when he had replied, "what you
imply by your message, and so do I," adds she, in the same tone.
"Ask him if he knows a man with pointed teeth named Rodrigues."
After a little consideration among the company, the governor replied
through Lady Biddy that he knew no one with pointed teeth.
"Tell him," says I again, "that Rodrigues is the pirate from whom we
escaped; that he is an excellent navigator as ever sailed the sea, and
knows this coast by heart; wherefore I do think by his anchoring half a
dozen leagues off to search for water, instead of coming in here for
refreshments--which had been the simpler and surer means--that he
harbors some sinister design upon the riches of this town."
The governor looked grave on hearing this, and his lady set to crossing
herself and calling on her saint for succor. Presently the governor
replied.
"I am to tell you," says Lady Biddy, "that Dom Sebastian d'Estovalderos
is prepared to meet any foe, and fears none. At the same time he thanks
you for your hint, and I think by his manner the old gentleman will be
very glad of a few more."
"Tell him," says I, "that I could not presume to offer advice to a
Portugal and a soldier, with any other flattery you think proper; but I
should feel more sure of my own skin if he would send out spies along
the coast to the west to warn us of the pirate's movements."
Dom Sebastian took this in very good part, and at once gave orders to
the men who had brought us in, and they departing at once, he eagerly
asked if he could make any other arrangement to increase my sense of
security.
I bade Lady Biddy let him know that Rodrigues was a man of extreme
subtlety and a crafty villain, who, understanding the temper of the
savages towards their masters, might secretly stir them up to rebellion
with a view to diverting attention from his attack, and that therefore I
should feel easier if the naturals were for a time deprived of their
bows and arrows.
The governor vowed they should all be sent in irons up the country at
the first approach of Rodrigues, but that, as to their bows, it was
impossible to find where they kept them adding that to conceal these
cherished arms they had so quickly scattered at the first musket-shot of
his factors. Further, he wished to know what else he could do for me.
"Tell him," says I, getting weary of this business, "that I will let him
know while I am eating if any other precaution occurs to my mind; but
that, before anything else, I would be glad to have a basin of water and
a clean shirt."
I know not how Lady Biddy suggested this, but certain it is that, after
a few more civilities were exchanged a lackey led me off to one part of
the house, while Mistress Sebastian herself carried Lady Biddy to
another. And here was I waited on hand and foot, my old suit stripped
off, and a very handsome dress laid out for me, which the governor
begged I would accept until his tailor could make me a better; and while
one fellow was tying my garters and buckling my shoes, another was
pointing my beard and cropping my head in the Spanish fashion. In fine,
betwixt one and the other, I was so changed that when I came to look in
the glass I did not know myself for Benet Pengilly. But I was not
displeased with my appearance; nay, on the contrary--to tell the
truth--I was as vain of myself as any coxcomb, and if I had possessed
it, I would freely have given a piece to the fellow who trimmed my head,
and another to him who had tied my garters, etc. And now I went out into
the garden with a strut and a flourish, as though this bravery was
naught to me, though my heart was all of a flutter to know how Lady
Biddy would take my looks.
She had not yet descended when I came to the company, who were all
laying their heads together very close in discussion, standing in a knot
some way from the table, which was laid out with a very elegant repast.
Seeing me approach, the gentlemen broke off their conversation, and Dom
Sebastian made a sign that I should sit down to table, but this I would
not do in the absence of Lady Biddy, albeit I was very sharp-set.
Presently she came from the house with the governor's lady. I made them
a prodigious fine bow, and they curtsied to me; and was flattered to the
top of my bent to perceive how my lady did regard me from the corner of
her eye with pleasure and approval.
She also had changed her torn frock for a gown of black silk, and with
this she wore a kerchief of lace thrown loosely over her head, which,
like a dark setting to a fair pearl, did add to the lustre of her
delicate skin and sparkling eyes--if it be possible to increase the
beauty of that which in itself is perfect; in a word, she did ravish the
eye.
And if those Portugals had before admired her, disheveled and
ill-arrayed, there is no word to express their regard now. A little
murmur arose amongst them as she gracefully took her seat at the table;
and while one betook himself to get a posey for her bosom, and another
set a cushion for her feet, the rest clustered around her like bees
about a honey-bloom, offering her delicacies from the store set before
us.
Lady Biddy was pleased to receive this homage, and, despite the accursed
jealousy of my nature, I bore them no ill-will for their attentions to
her, feeling that I was as good as any grandee amongst them, and better
in my dear Lady Biddy's esteem.
After we had eaten to our heart's content, the governor very politely
offered me some tobacco, which there they do not use in pipes, but
rolled up in sticks about the bigness of a farthing candle, which
tobacco is very excellent smoking indeed; and so, being risen, the
governor gave his arm to Lady Biddy, and we strolled to that part of the
grounds which commanded a wide view of the town, the river, and the sea
beyond.
At that moment a runner came in, sweating with haste, to tell that a
ship was in sight; but we needed not his warning, for I had already
spied in the distance a sail which I knew at a glance for the _Black
Death_.