"The Philistines be upon thee, Samson."
_Judges_ xvi. 9.
For the first time in his life Mowbray felt the tremor of a woman's
kiss. Naturally, in an age when kissing was regarded, save by husbands
and jealous lovers, as a mere expression of esteem, his lips had met
those of many a pretty girl during a village revel or when the chestnuts
exploded on the hearth of an All Hallow's Eve. Yet there was an
irresistible impulse, a silent avowal, in the manner of his leave-taking
of Eleanor Roe that caused the blood to tingle in his veins with the
rapture of a new delight. For a few paces he trod on air.
Big Roger, recking little of these lover-like raptures, brought him back
to earth with a question:--
"Had we not better seek the open streets than scramble through these
uncertain trees, friend Walter?"
"Forgive me. I should have told you that one awaits us here."
"Marry! Is the refuge planned already?"
"I know not. Hist, now, a moment, and we shall soon be wiser."
They stood in silence for a few seconds. They heard the clash of
accouterments and the champing of bits from the cavalcade halted
outside Alderman Cave's door.
"I' faith," growled Roger, "his most gracious Majesty hath sent an army
to apprehend us. Yet, if you be not misled, he bids fair to be no better
off than Waltham's calf, which ran nine miles to suck a bull and came
home athirst."
"I pray you cease. Sir Thomas! Sir Thomas Roe!"
At the call a figure advanced from amidst the trees.
"Grant me your pardon, Master Mowbray," came the polite response. "I was
not prepared to encounter a son of Anak in your company. I had grave
design to climb the wall speedily when I saw your giant comrade dimly
outlined. It will be a matter of no small difficulty to pilot him
unobserved through the city."
"Show me the North Road and I'll make my own gait," said Roger.
"Nay, that is not my intent. I was, in foolish parlance, thinking aloud.
Difficulties exist only that resolute men may surmount them. I do not
decry your length of limb, good sir. Rather would I avail myself of it.
Behind these bushes there is a wall of such proportions that your height
alone will enable us to scale it without noise. Now, Master Mowbray, up
on your friend's shoulders. I will follow suit. Between the two of us we
shall hoist him after."
Roe's cool demeanor inspired them with confidence. Though it was now so
dark, owing to storm-clouds having banked up from the west, that they
had to grope their path through the undergrowth, they obeyed his
directions. All three were seated astride a ten-foot wall without much
delay.
That they had not acted an instant too soon was evident from the fact
that already armed men carrying torches were spreading fan-wise across
Draper's Garden from the Caves's house, and they heard a loud voice
bellowing from the private doorway:--
"I call on all liege men and true to secure the arrest of two
malefactors who have but now escaped from this dwelling."
Mowbray found himself wondering why the hue and cry had been raised so
promptly. Some one must have indicated the exact place where he and
Roger had disappeared. But Roe dropped from the wall on the other side
and whispered up to them:--
"Follow! It is soft earth."
"Hold by the wall," he murmured when they stood by his side. "It leads
to a wicket."
Walking in Indian file they quickly passed into a narrow court. Thence,
threading many a dark alley and tortuous by-street, stopping always at
main thoroughfares until their guide signaled that the way was clear,
they crossed the city towards the river. Roe knew London better than the
watch. Seemingly, he could find the track blindfold, and Walter guessed
that the cavalier often used this device in order to encounter Anna Cave
unseen by others. It was passing strange that Nellie should be an inmate
of a house where her brother was so unwelcome. However, this was no
hour to push inquiries. He was now utterly lost as to locality, and he
awaited, with some curiosity, the outcome of this nocturnal wandering
through the most ancient part of London.
At last, the close air of the alleys gave place to a fresher draft, and
his quick ear caught the plash of water.
"Guard your steps here," said Roe. "The stairs are not of the best, but
they will bear your weight if you proceed with caution."
He appeared to vanish through a trap-door in a small jetty. Down in the
impenetrable darkness they heard him say:--
"I have flint and steel, yet, if you give me your hand, I can dispense
with a light."
Thus, with exact directions, he seated them safely in a boat, and,
controlling the craft by retaining touch with the beams of the wharf,
after gliding through the gloom for a few yards he was able to ply a
pair of oars in the stream. Neither of the others had been on the Thames
at night--Roger had not even seen the river before--and so, when the
oarsman vigorously impelled the wherry straight into what looked like a
row of tall houses, with lights in some of the upper windows, the
North-country youths thought for sure they would collide violently with
the foundations. They were minded to cry a warning, but seeing that Roe
glanced frequently over his shoulder they refrained.
Thus, they shot under one of the many arches of London Bridge, covered
then throughout its length by tall buildings, and, once they were
speeding in mid-stream of the open river, they saw a forest of masts
rising dimly in front.
Ere long, Sir Thomas Roe, who exercised sailor-like skill in the
management of his oars, picked out one of the innumerable company of
ships and lay to under the vessel's quarter.
"_Defiance_ ahoy!" he cried softly.
"Aye, aye," replied a voice, and a rope ladder fell into the boat.
Whilst Roe held it his companions clambered aloft, gaining the deck of a
fair-sized merchantman where watch was kept by a number of sailors.
It chanced that Sainton mounted first, and a lantern flashed into his
eyes. As he became visible, by feet at a time, for he stood nearly seven
feet high, the man holding the light fell back in amazed fear.
"Avaunt thee!" he roared. "Up pikes to repel boarders! Here be the devil
himself come to murther us!"
"Peace, fellow," said Roger, "when Old Nick visits thee he shall not
need to come in the guise of an honest man. Yet, I warrant thee, Sir
Thomas Roe shall play the devil when he comes aboard if thou makest such
a row without better cause."
Mowbray's appearance, with Roe close on his heels, quelled the
excitement of the watch. A few sharp words recalled them to their
duties. The ladder was hoisted in and the boat secured with a painter,
whilst Roe led the newcomers to the after cabin, where, over a flagon of
wine, he sought their better acquaintance.
Mowbray gave him a detailed account of all that had taken place, and
Roe's finely-chiseled face flushed deeply when he heard the true extent
of the outrage planned by the band of young gallants.
"I have no wish to defend Gondomar," he said slowly, seeming to compel
reason to master rage. "He has brought the Inquisition to England. He
carries our worthy King in his pocket. Yet I would fain believe that he
is too wary and prudent to countenance such doings at the very gates of
the city, which he fears alone in all England."
"To be just, I believe he was not present. Nevertheless, word came to
Sir Thomas Cave that when tidings of the affair reached him, he rose
instantly from play at Beaujeu's and hastened to Whitehall to demand our
arrest."
"Ah, it is a bad business. I am much bounden to you. You know that one
of these girls is my youngest sister. The other I prize dearer than life
itself. Yet, unless you and Master Sainton agree to sail with me on this
ship to the Amazons I fear that naught can save you from the King's
wrath. I am powerless, being in ill repute at court. The city is strong,
but unwilling, as yet, to openly defy the thieves and adulterers who
pander to James's vanities and stop his ears to the representations of
God-fearing men. This cannot endure. Our people are long-suffering but
mighty in their wrath. If Elizabeth ruled with a strong hand she ever
strove to advance the honor of England and to safeguard the liberties of
her subjects. Now our flag is trailed in the mud. We are treated with
contumely abroad and our protests at home are stifled by the Star
Chamber. It must end. It shall end. Monarchy itself shall rot ere
England perishes!"
These were dangerous words. They lost none of their tremendous import
when uttered by a man of such statesman-like qualities that Anthony a
Wood wrote of him long afterwards: "Those who knew him well have said
that there was nothing wanting in him towards the accomplishment of a
scholar, gentleman, or courtier."
It was inevitable that the opinion of such an one should weigh deeply
with young Mowbray, and impress even the less critical brains of Roger
Sainton. Roe's appearance, no less than his impassioned outburst, would
have won the credence of any well-bred youths in the Kingdom. In face,
in figure, and indeed in many of his attributes, he resembled that
gallant and high-minded adventurer of an earlier generation, Sir Walter
Raleigh, who was now a close prisoner in the Tower. He had the bright,
penetrating eyes, the long, aquiline nose, firm mouth, and well-molded
chin which bespeak good birth and high intelligence. A mass of brown
hair waved over a lofty forehead and fell in ringlets on his neck. He
wore the mustaches and Vandyke tuft of beard affected by gentlemen of
the period, and the natural gravity of his expression could be wholly
dispelled, when occasion warranted, by a smile of rare humor.
But he was in no smiling mood just then. He leaned his head on his hand
and sighed wearily. Mowbray, notwithstanding his own desperate though
wholly unmerited plight, now presented to his eyes in all its sinister
significance, could not help marveling how it came about that the leader
of an expedition to the Spanish Main, which could scarce be undertaken
without royal sanction, should avow himself so helpless in that very
circle, while it was still more strange that Roe's position and
attainments did not render him a favored suitor in the Cave household.
Moreover, the King had knighted him, and Nellie Roe had said, during
their walk in the garden, that her brother was a great friend of Prince
Henry, and declared laughingly that Anna should think herself highly
flattered, for the gossip ran that Princess Elizabeth was much attached
to "Honest Tom," as she called him.
Roe's disturbed reflections and Mowbray's bewilderment alike were put an
end to by Roger.
"Ecod!" he cried, thumping the stout table screwed to the floor of the
cabin and making the tankards dance under the blow, "Walter and I can
ask no better fate than to voyage with you to the Indies. We are in
quest of fortune, and folk say that the Spaniards have gold for the
taking. Here's to you, Sir Thomas Roe, and here's to all of us! May we
never want nowt, none of us!"
He drained his own tankard and caused a gleam of amusement to flicker on
Roe's face.
"Had you lost your right hand for brawling, Master Sainton," he said,
"you would now lose the left if the King heard your sentiments. Harry a
Spaniard, i' faith! That is rankest heresy nowadays. Yet there is no
telling what may befall when we set our course west by south of the
Canaries. And now, let me see to your comfort for the night."
He called a young negro from the depths of the ship; the sudden
appearance of the boy's shining black face in the cabin caused Roger
Sainton to start so violently that Roe and Mowbray laughed, while the
negro himself displayed all his teeth in a huge grin. Mowbray, during an
earlier visit to London, had seen many a dark-skinned man; it was
becoming the fashion to have one or more of these ebony-hued servitors
in each household with any pretensions to grandeur. But Roger had never
before set eyes on the like, and the apparition was unexpected.
"Gad," said he, reaching for the flagon again, "no wonder the sailor-man
thought he saw the devil! 'Tis clear he fancied that this worthy had
fallen overboard."
He stood up, to follow Roe, whereupon the negro's astonishment was even
greater than Roger's, for the cock's feathers in the Yorkshireman's hat
swept the ceiling of the cabin, and his belt was nearly on a level with
the other's chin.
"Where him one dam big fighting-man lie, sir?" said the black to Roe.
"Dere am no bunk in the ship will hold him half."
Indeed, this was a minor difficulty which had not been foreseen. In his
own cabin, which Roe intended to place temporarily at their service,
there were two bunks, but each was a full twelve inches too short for
Sainton. They were stoutly built, too, of solid oak and abutting on
strong lockers. The only way in which one of them could be made to serve
his needs was to cut away the partition, and it was now a very late hour
to seek the services of the ship's carpenter.
"If that is the only drawback, it is solved most readily," said Roger,
and, with his clenched fist, guarded only by a leather glove, he smashed
a strong oaken panel out of its dovetailed joints.
The negro's eyes nearly fell out with amazement, and, indeed, Sir Thomas
Roe was not prepared for this simple yet very unusual feat of sheer
strength.
"That blow would have felled an ox," he cried, and Mowbray told him how
Roger once, in the market square of Richmond, had, for a wager, brought
down an old bull with a straight punch between the eyes.
Now, the negro not only saw and heard, but he talked of these things to
the watch, and they, in their turn, related them to others of the ship's
company in the early morning. It chanced that a half-caste Spanish cook,
hired because he knew the speech of the natives of Guiana, was among the
auditory, and he stole to the cabin wherein the two Englishmen lay
sleeping soundly. Mere idle curiosity impelled him to gaze at the man
who could perform such prodigies, and, having gaped sufficiently, he
went ashore for a farewell carouse with certain cronies in Alsatia.
Not the great men of the world, but their petty myrmidons, are oft the
mainspring of the events which shape the destinies not alone of
individuals but of nations. Even Pedro, the half-caste, might have
dispensed with the day's drinking bout had his cup been fashioned of the
magic crystal which enables credulous people to see future events in its
shadowy mirror! Assuredly, some of the sights therein would have sated
his desire for stimulant.
Mowbray and Sainton were aroused by an unusual movement. At first they
hardly knew where they were, and it was passing strange that the floor
should heave and the walls creak.
Mowbray sprang from his bunk quickly and looked through the open door to
see if it were possible that the ship had cast off from her moorings
during the night. The frowning battlements of the Tower, dimly visible
through a pelting rain, showed that his first surmise was incorrect. The
_Defiance_ was anchored securely enough, but a high wind had lashed the
river into turbulence, and the storm which threatened over night had
burst with fury over London.
Roger, too, awoke.
"Gad," he cried, "I dreamt I was being hanged as a cutpurse, and I felt
the branch of an oak-tree swaying as I swung in the wind."
"You will have many such visions if you mix Brown Devon and Alicant with
the wines of Burgundy in your midnight revels," said Walter, cheerfully.
To his ordered senses had come the memory of the garden and Nellie Roe's
kiss. He hailed the bad weather with glee. Men would be loth to stir
abroad, and, if Sir Thomas Roe's arrangements permitted, he could
foresee another meeting with Eleanor that evening.
"At times you talk but scurvy sense," grumbled Sainton, pulling on his
huge boots. "'Tis the lack of a pasty, washed down by any one of the
good liquors you name, that hath disordered my stomach and sent its
fasting vapors to my brain. By the cross of Osmotherly, I could eat the
haunch of a horse."
"Without there!" shouted Mowbray. "Where is the black summoned by Sir
Thomas Roe to wait on us?"
The negro came at the call. He told them that his master had gone ashore
at daybreak, with intent to return before noon, but that breakfast
awaited their lordships' pleasure in the cabin.
The hours passed all too slowly until Roe put in an appearance. He was
ferried to the ship in some state, in a boat with six rowers. He had
learnt that the city was scoured for them all night, and the rumor ran
that they had escaped towards Barnet, this canard having been put about
by some friendly disposed person.
"I cannot understand the rancor displayed in this matter," he said.
"King James must have been stirred most powerfully against you, yet it
is idle to think that you have earned the hatred of some court favorite
already. Perhaps Lord Dereham is seeking revenge for being thrown into
the glass-house, though, if rumor be true, his Lordship dwells in one,
being a perfect knave. In any event, you must not be seen, and I shall
warn my men to forget your very existence. We sail with to-morrow
morning's tide, and, if this wind holds, shall be clear of the Downs by
night."
Thinking this speech augured badly for his hopes, Mowbray said nothing
of his plan to visit Cave's house after dusk.
The sailors, under Roe's directions, began to warp the ship alongside a
wharf, where many bales of merchandise and barrels of flour, salt beef,
dried fish, preserved fruit for scurvy, wine, beer, and the mixed
collection of stores needed for a long voyage, were piled in readiness
to be placed in her hold.
Walter, and Roger especially, were warned to remain hidden in the after
cabin, where none save the ship's officers had business, and Roe felt
that he could trust his subordinates, if for no better reason than
self-interest, for two such recruits were valuable additions to the
ship's company.
Though the confinement was irksome it was so obviously necessary to
their safety that they made the best of it.
Walter found in a cupboard a ship-master's journal of a voyage to
Virginia, and entertained Roger with extracts therefrom, whilst the
latter, at times, stretched his huge limbs and hummed a verse or two of
that old song of Percy and Douglas, which, as Sir Philip Sydney used to
say, had the power to stir the heart as a trumpet.
The rain ceased with the decline of day. The monotonous clank of the
windlass and the cries of stevedores and sailors gave place to the swish
of water as the watch washed the deck. For convenience' sake, a supply
of fresh water being the last thing to be taken aboard next morning, the
vessel was tied up to the wharf. When the tide fell she was left high
and dry on the mud.
Roe was much occupied ashore with those city merchants who helped him in
his venture, but he undertook privily to warn Anna Cave as to the
whereabouts of the two young men to whom she was so greatly indebted,
and they might leave to her contriving the transfer of their baggage to
the ship at a late hour.
"You shall not see her again, then?" asked Walter, with a faint hope
that her lover would strain every nerve in that direction, when he might
accompany him.
"No," was the determined answer. "Such a course would be fraught with
risk to you. I might be seen and followed. Her father's serving-men,
coming hither by night, will pass unnoticed."
"Do not consider me in that respect, I pray you."
Roe shook his head and sighed.
"I am resolved," he said. "We may not meet until I return, if God wills
it. I told her as much last night. We said 'farewell'; let it rest at
that."
So Walter's heart sank into his boots, for the case between him and
Nellie rested on as doubtful a basis as that between Roe and Anna.
He sat down to indite a letter to his mother, which Sir Thomas would
entrust to one of his friends having affairs in the north. Roger could
not write, but he sent a loving message to Mistress Sainton, with many
quaint instructions as to the management of the garth and homestead.
"Tell her," quoth he, "that I be going across seas to reive the Dons,
and that I shall bring back to her a gold drinking-cup worthy of her
oldest brew."
"A man may catch larks if the heavens fall," commented Walter in
Rabelais's phrase.
"Or if he lime a twig he may e'en obtain a sparrow. My auld mother will
be pleased enough to see me if the cup be pewter. Write, man, and cheer
her. I'll warrant you have vexed Mistress Mowbray with a screed about
yon wench you were sparking in the garden last night."
Indeed, it was true. Walter bent to the table to hide a blush. His
letter dealt, in suspicious detail, with the charms and graces of Nellie
Roe.
At last the missive was addressed and sealed. It was nearly ten o'clock,
and London was quieting down for the night, when the two quitted their
cabin and walked to the larger saloon where Sir Thomas Roe, with Captain
Davis, the commander of the _Defiance_, was busy with many documents.
They talked there a little while. Suddenly they heard the watch hailed
by a boat alongside.
"What ship is that?"
"Who hails?"
"The King's officer."
Roe sprang to his feet and rushed out, for the cabin was in the poop,
and the door was level with the main deck. The others followed. In the
river, separated from the vessel by a few feet of mud, was an
eight-oared barge filled with soldiers.
"'Fore God!" he whispered to Mowbray, "they have found your retreat."
They turned towards the wharf. A company of halberdiers and arquebusiers
had surrounded it and already an officer was advancing towards the
gangway.
"Bid Sainton offer no resistance," said Roe, instantly. "At best, you
can demand fair hearing, and I will try what a bold front can do.
Remember, you are sworn volunteers for my mission to Guiana."
As well strive to stem the water then rushing up from the Nore towards
London Bridge as endeavor to withstand the King's warrant. The officer
was civil, but inflexible. Sorely against the grain, both Mowbray and
Sainton were manacled and led ashore.
"Tell me, at least, whither you take them," demanded Roe. "The King hath
been misled in this matter and my friends will seek prompt justice at
his Majesty's hands."
"My orders are to deliver them to the Tower," was the reply.
"Were you bidden come straight to this ship?"
There was no answer. The officer signified by a blunt gesture that he
obeyed orders, but could give no information.
Surrounded by armed men and torch-bearers the unlucky youths were about
to be marched off through the crowd of quay-side loiterers which had
gathered owing to the presence of the soldiers--Roe was bidding them be
of good cheer and all should yet go well with them--when an unexpected
diversion took place.
Standing somewhat aloof from the mob were several men carrying bags and
boxes. With them were two closely cloaked females, and this little
party, arriving late on the scene, were apparently anxious not to
attract attention. But the glare of the flambeaux fell on Roger's tall
form and revealed Mowbray by his side.
"Oh, Ann," wailed a despairing voice, "they have taken him."
Walter heard the cry, and so did Roe. They knew who it was that spoke.
Roe, with a parting pressure of Mowbray's shoulder, strode off to
comfort his sister, whilst Mowbray himself, though unable to use his
hands, hustled a halberdier out of the way and cried:--
"Farewell, Mistress Roe. Though the cordon of King's men be here, yet
have I seen you, and, God willing, I shall not part from you so speedily
when next we meet."
He knew that the girls, greatly daring, had slipped out with the men who
carried his goods and those of Sainton. Though his heart beat with
apprehension of an ignominious fate, yet it swelled with pride, too, at
the thought that Eleanor had come to see him.
The guard, seeming to dread an attempted rescue, gathered nearer to
their prisoners. A slight altercation took place between Roe and the
officer anent the disposition of the prisoners' effects. Finally, Sir
Thomas had his way, and their goods were handed over to the soldiers to
be taken with them.
Then, a sharp command was given, the front rank lowered their halberds,
the crowd gave way, and the party marched off towards the Tower.
Roger, by means of his great height, could see clear over the heads of
the escort.
"That lass must be mightily smitten with thee, Walter," he said gruffly.
"She would have fallen like a stone had not Mistress Cave caught her in
her arms."