GALLEONS ABOUT!
"What's to do now? That's the question," said Tandy, an hour later, as
he and I sat in his little cabin abaft the mainmast, while, to hearten
ourselves up, we sipped together a bottle of Florence wine which he
had on board, and he sucked at his great pipe. "What now? No use for
me to think of Cadiz, though what a chance I would have had if our
countrymen had only made themselves masters of it! And for you, Mr.
Crespin? For you? I suppose, in truth, you knew of this--had some
affair of commerce, too, which brought you this way, on the idea that
they would be sure to capture the place."
"Ay, I had some idea," I answered, moodily, thinking it mattered very
little what I said now, short of the still great secret that the
galleons were going into Vigo, and never did mean coming into these
more southern regions. This secret I still kept, I say--and for one
reason. It was this, namely, that I thought it very likely that, even
though the fleet under Rooke might be driven back from Cadiz, they yet
had a chance of encountering the galleons making their way up to Vigo,
and, if they did so, I felt very sure that they would attack those
vessels, even in their own hour of defeat. Therefore, I said nothing
about the real destination of the Spanish treasure ships, though I
knew well enough that all hope was gone of my being the fortunate
individual to put my countrymen on their track.
Also, I remembered that that hoary-headed old ruffian, Carstairs, had
spoken of two at least of those galleons as being of importance to
him--and you may be sure that I had no intention whatever of
enlightening him as to anything I knew.
"What did the Portuguese picaroon tell you?" I asked of Tandy, now;
"what information give? And--are they sure of their news?"
"Oh, very sure," he answered. "No doubt about that. No doubt whatever
that we have failed in the attack on Cadiz--abandoned the siege, gone
home. They were too many for us there, and--'tis not often that it
happens, God be praised!--we are beaten."
"But why so sure? And are they--these Portuguese--to be trusted?"
"What use to tell lies? They _are_ Portuguese, and would have welcomed
a victory."
I shrugged my shoulders at this--then asked again what the strength of
their information was.
To which the captain made reply:
"They came in, it seems, early in the month, and called on the
governor to declare for Austria against France, to which he returned
reply that it was not his custom to desert his king, as many of the
English were in the habit of doing, he understood; whereon--the Duke
of Ormond being vexed by such an answer, which, it seems, did reflect
on him--the siege of Port St. Mary's commenced, the place being taken
by our people and being found to be full of wealth----"
"Taken and full of wealth!" I exclaimed. "Yet you say we are
defeated!"
"Listen," went on Tandy, "that was as nothing; for now the German
Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had come too, in the interests of his
Austrian master, interfered, begging of Rooke and that other not to
destroy the town, since it would injure their cause forever with the
Spaniards, and--and--well, the Portygee captain of that picaroon I
spoke says that they were only too willing to fall in with his desires
and retire without making further attempt."
"And these are English seamen and soldiers!" I muttered furiously. "My
God! To turn tail thus!"
"Ormond agreed not with these views, it seems," Tandy went on, "but he
could not outweigh the admirals--and that is all I know, except that
he will perhaps impeach 'em when they get back to England. And,
anyway, they are gone."
"And with them," I thought to myself, "go all my hopes. The galleons
will get in safe enough; there is nothing for it but to make back for
Holland and tell the earl that I have failed. No more than that," and
my bitterness was great within me at these reflections, you may be
sure.
Tandy, I doubted not, observed these feelings which possessed me, for
a minute later he said--while I observed that in a kindly way he
filled up my glass for me, as I sat brooding with my head upon my
hands by the side of the cuddy table:
"I see this touches you nearly, Mr. Crespin, and am grieved. Yet
what will you do now? Since you have missed your chance--I know not
what--will you return with me? If so you are very welcome, and--and,"
he spoke this with a delicacy I should scarce have looked for, "and
there will be no--no--passage money needed. _La Mouche Noire_ is at
your service to Rotterdam, or, for the matter of that, to Deal or
London, or where you will. I shall but stay to go in to Lagos for wood
and water, and, perhaps, sell some of my goods, if fortune serves so
far, and then--why then, 'tis back again to Holland or England to see
what may be done. I have the passage moneys of you and that old ribald
aft. For me things might be worse, thank God!"
At first I knew not what answer to make to this kindly, offer--for
kindly it was, since there was according to our compact no earthly
reason whatsoever why he should convey me back again, except as a
passenger paying highly for the service. In truth, I was so sick and
hipped at the vanishing of this, my great opportunity, that I had
recked nothing of what happened now. All I knew was that I had failed;
that I had missed, although through no fault of mine own, a glorious
chance. Therefore I said gloomily:
"Do what you will--I care not. I must get me back to Holland somehow,
and may as well take passage there with you as go other ways. In truth
there is none that I know of. Yet, kind as your offer is to convey me
free of charge, it must not be. I cannot let you be at a loss, and I
have a sufficiency of money."
"Oh! as for that, 'tis nothing. However, we will talk on this later.
Now let's see for getting into Lagos--there is nothing else to be
done. 'Specially as I must have wood and water."
Then he went away to study his chart and compass, while I sought my
bed again, and, all being perfect silence at this time in Carstairs'
cabin--doubtless he was quite drunk by now!--I managed to get some
sleep, though 'twas uneasy at the best.
In the morning when I again went on deck I saw that we were in full
sail, as I had guessed us to be from the motion of the ship while
dressing myself below; also, a look at the compass box told me we were
running due north--for Lagos. And, if aught could have cheered the
heart of a drooping man, it should have been the surroundings of this
fair, bright morning. It was, I remember well, September 22--the
glistening sea, looking like a great blue diamond sparkling beneath
the bright sun, the white spume flung up forward over our bows, the
equally white sheets above. Also, near us, to add to the beauty of the
morn, the sea was dotted with a-many small craft, billander rigged,
their sails a bright scarlet--and these, Tandy told me, were
Portuguese fishing boats out catching the tunny, which abounds
hereabout. While, away on our starboard beam, were--I started as I
looked at them--what were they?
Three great vessels near together, their huge white sails bellied out
to the breeze, sailing very free; the foam tossed from their stems,
almost contemptuously, it seemed, so proudly did they dash it away
from them; vessels full rigged, and tightly, too; vessels along the
sides of which there ran tier upon tier of gun-ports; vessels also,
from each of whose mastheads there flew a flag--the flag of England!
"What does it mean?" I asked Tandy, who strolled along the poop toward
me, his face having on it a broad grin, while his eye drooped into
that wink he used so. "What does it mean? They are our own ships of
war; surely they are not chasing us!"
"Never fear!" said he. "They are but consorts of ours just now. Oh!
it's a brave talk we have been having together with the flags this
morning. They are of the fleet--are Her Majesty's ships _Eagle_,
_Stirling Castle_ and _Pembroke_--and are doing exactly the same as
ourselves, are going into Lagos for water. Also those transports
behind," and he pointed away aft, where half a dozen of those vessels
were following.
"The fleet," I gasped, "the fleet that has left Cadiz--the great fleet
under Sir George Rooke--and going into Lagos!"
"Some of them--those you see now on our beam, and the transports
coming up."
"And the others," I gasped again, overcome by this joyful news, "the
others? What of them?"
"Oh! they will lie off till these go out with the fresh water casks.
Then for England."
"Never," I said to myself. "Not yet, at least," and I turned my face
away so that Tandy should not perceive the emotion which I felt sure
must be depicted on it.
For think, only think, what this meant to England--to me!
It meant that I--the only man in the seas around Spain and Portugal
who knew of where the galleons would be, or were by now--I who alone
could tell them, tell this great fleet, which I had but lately missed,
of the whereabouts of those galleons--had by God's providence come
into communication with them again; meant that the instant we were in
Lagos bay I could go aboard one of those great warships and divulge
all--tell them to make for Vigo, tell them that it was in their power
to deal so fierce a blow to Spain and France as should cripple them.
I could have danced and sung for very joy. I could have flung my arms
around Tandy's sun-burned and hairy neck in ecstasy, have performed
any act of craziness which men indulge in when a great happiness falls
upon them; nay, would have done any deed of folly, but that I was
restrained by the reflection of how all depended on me now, and of
how--since I was the bearer of so great a piece of news from so great
a man as the Earl of Marlborough--it behooved me to act with
circumspection and decorum. Therefore I calmed myself, instead of
indulging in any transports whatever. I recollect that I even forced
myself to make some useless remark upon the beauty of the smiling
morn; that I said also that I thought _La Mouche Noire_ was making as
good seaway as the great frigates themselves, then asked coldly and
indifferently, with the same desire for disguise, when Tandy thought
we might all be in the bay and at anchorage.
He glanced up at the sun--he had a big tortoise-shell watch in his
pocket, but, sailor-like, never looked at it during the day, and when
he had the sun for horologe--then leaned over the high gunwale of the
ship and looked between his hands toward the north, and said:
"The old castle of Penhas is rising rapidly to view. 'Tis now eight of
the clock. By midday we shall have dropped anchor."
"And the frigates?" I asked, with a nod toward the queen's great
ships, which still were on our beam, in the same position to us as
before.
"About the same. Only they will go in first to make choice of their
anchorage." Then he added: "But they will not stay long; no longer
than to fill the casks. Perhaps a day, or till nightfall."
"'Twill be long enough for me," I thought. "An hour would suffice to
get on board one of them, ask to be taken off and sent to the
admiral's ship to tell my tale. Long enough."
And now I went below again--with what different feelings from those
which possessed me when I went on deck, you may well suppose--and
began hastily to bestow my necessaries, such as they were, into the
bag I had carried behind me on my horse from Venloo to Rotterdam: a
change of linen, some brushes, a sleeping gown and a good cloak,
carried either around me or the bag, if warm and dry weather, my
powder flask and a little sack of bullets for my cavalry pistols--that
was all. Also I counted my pieces, took out my shagreen bill case and
saw that my Lord Marlborough's money drafts were safe, as well as my
commission to the regiment, which must now serve as a passport and
letter of presentation, and I was ready to go ashore at any moment,
and to transfer myself to one of the ships if they would take me with
them after I had told my news, as my Lord had said I was to demand
they should do. Yet, little while enough as I had been a-doing of
these things, 'twas not so quickly finished but that there was time
for an interruption; interruption from Mr. Carstairs, who, a moment or
so after I had been in my cabin, tapped gently, almost furtively, it
seemed to me, upon the door, and on my bidding him come in--I
suspecting very well who it was--put his head through the opening he
had made by pushing it back.
"Are we in danger?" he asked, while as he spoke, I could not but
observe that he looked very badly this morning--perhaps from the
renewals of his drinkings. His face was all puckered and drawn, and
whiter, it seemed to me, than before; his eyes were hideously
bloodshot--that must, I guessed, be the drink--while the white, coarse
hand with which he grasped the panel shook, I observed.
"Danger!" I repeated coldly, as well as curtly, for, as you may be
sure, I had come to thoroughly despise, as well as cordially to
detest, this dissolute old man who, besides, had a black and fearful
past behind him, if his feverish wanderings of mind were to be
trusted. "Danger! From what?"
"There are war frigates by us," he whispered. "Do you not know?"
"Yes, I know. But you who have been, it seems, a sailor, should also
know our own flag, I think."
"Our own flag! Our English flag!"
"Can you not see?"
"They are on the other side of the ship. I cannot see aught through my
port."
"Look through mine, then," I answered, pointing to it, and he, with
many courteous excuses for venturing to intrude--he was much changed
now, I thought--went over to my window, and gazed at the queen's
vessels.
"True," he said. "True. They are English--our--ships. Where could they
come from, do you suppose?"
"From the Cadiz fleet. And they are going into Lagos, as we are."
"And then--do you know where to, then--afterward--noble sir?"
"Then they will go north."
He drew a long breath at this--I guessed it to be a sigh of
satisfaction at the thought that the English fleet should be going
north, while the galleons, in which he had seemed to be so concerned,
should either be going into, or gone into, Cadiz--as he supposed. Then
he said:
"Oh, sir, this is, indeed, good news. For--for--I have business at
Cadiz--very serious business, and--if they had remained here in the
south they might have done much harm to honest traders, might they
not? Do you not think so?"
"They may do harm elsewhere," I answered, again curtly. And my brevity
caused him to look at me enquiringly.
"What harm? What can they do?"
"Oh! as for that," I said, unable to resist the temptation of repaying
him somewhat for all the discomfort he had caused in the ship, and
also because I so much despised him, "as for that, they might do much.
They say there are some galleons about. Supposing they should meet
them. 'Tis a great fleet; it could be fateful to a weaker one."
"Galleons! Galleons about!" he repeated--shrieked, almost. "Nay! Nay!
Nay! The galleons are safe in Cadiz by now."
"Are they?" I said, shrugging of my shoulders.
"Are they not?" And now his face was death itself.
"We spoke a ship last night which did not say so," I answered. "No
galleons have passed this way, gone in yet."
I almost regretted my words, seeing, a moment later, their effect on
him. For that effect was great--I had nigh written terrible.
He staggered back from the port-hole by which he had been standing,
gazing out at the _Pembroke_ and her consorts, his face waxy now from
the absence of blood; his lips a bluish purple, so that I could see
the cracks in them; his coarse white hands twitching; and his eyes
roving round my cabin lighted on my washing commode, on which stood
the water ewer; then he seized it and the glass, poured out from one
to the other--his hand shook so that the neck of the vessel clinked a
tune upon the rim of the glass--and drank, yet not without some sort
of a murmured apology for doing so--an apology that became almost a
whine.
"Not passed this way--not gone in yet? My God! Where are they?
And--and--with that fleet here--here--here--'twixt here and Cape St.
Vincent! Where are they?"
"Probably coming in now--on their way," I made answer. "Or very near."
Then next said, quietly: "You seem concerned about this?"
"Concerned!" he wailed. "Concerned! I have my fortune, my all--'tis
not much, yet much to me--on board two of the galleons, and--and--ah!"
and he clutched at his ruffled shirt front. "The English fleet is
there--across their path! My God!"