CHAPTER I

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: THEY MARCHED ... LIKE MEN WHO HAD LOST ALL INTEREST IN

LIFE]

PRINCE RUPERT

THE BUCCANEER

BY

C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE

WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. GRENVILLE MANTON

THIRD EDITION

METHUEN & CO.

36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

First Published . . . April 1901

Second Edition . . . June 1901

Third Edition . . . . May 1907

TO

E. C. H.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. The Pawning of the Fleet

II. The Admission to the Brotherhood

III. The Rape of the Spanish Pearls

IV. The Ransoming of Caraccas

V. The Passage-money

VI. The Mermaid and the Act of Faith

VII. The Galley

VIII. The Regaining of the Fleet

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

They marched ... like men who had lost all interest in life . . .

_Frontispiece_

Prince Rupert shone out like a very Paladin

Then one Watkin, a man of iron and a mighty shooter, took the lead

It would be a perpetual sunshine for me, Querida

Master Laughan endeavoured to outdo them all in desperation and valour

"Oh, I say what I think," retorted Watkin with a sour look

The secretary was occupied in leading her own.

There is no mistaking the manner of buccaneers returning well-laden

PRINCE RUPERT THE BUCCANEER

CHAPTER I

THE PAWNING OF THE FLEET

"Not slaves, your Highness," said the Governor. "We call them

_engagés_ here: it's a genteeler style. The Lord General keeps us

supplied."

"I'll be bound he gave them the plainer name," said Prince Rupert.

The Governor of Tortuga shrugged his shoulders. "On the bills of

lading they are written as Malignants; but judging from the way he

packed the last cargo, Monsieur Cromwell regards them as cattle. It is

evident that he cared only to be shut of them. They were so packed

that one half were dead and over the side before the ship brought up to

her anchors in the harbour here. And what were left fetched but poor

prices. There was a strong market too. The Spaniards had been making

their raids on the hunters, and many of the _engagés_ had been killed:

our hunters wanted others; they were hungry for others; but these poor

rags of seaworn, scurvy-bitten humanity which offered, were hardly

worth taking away to teach the craft--Your Highness neglects the

cordial."

"I am in but indifferent mood for drinking, Monsieur. It hangs in my

memory that these poor rogues once fought most stoutly for me and the

King. Cromwell was ever inclined to be iron-fisted with these Irish.

Even when we were fighting him on level terms he hanged all that came

into his hands, till he found us stringing up an equal number of his

saints by way of reprisal. But now he has the kingdom all to himself,

I suppose he can ride his own gait. But it is sad, Monsieur D'Ogeron,

detestably sad. Irish though they were, these men fought well for the

Cause."

The Governor of Tortuga emptied his goblet and looked thoughtfully at

its silver rim. "But I did not say they were Irish, _mon prince_.

Four Irish kernes there were on the ship's manifest, but the scurvy

took them, and they went overside before reaching here."

"Scots then?"

"There is one outlandish fellow who might be a Scot, or a Yorkshireman,

or a Russian, or something like that. But no man could speak his

lingo, and none would bid for him at the sale. You may have him as a

present if you care, and if perchance he can be found anywhere alive on

the island. No, your Highness, this consignment is all English;

drafted from foot, horse, and guns: and a rarely sought-after lot they

would have been, if whole. From accounts, they must have been all

tried fighting men, and many had the advantage of being under your own

distinguished command.--Your Highness, I beseech you shirk not the

cordial. This climate creates a pleasing thirst, which we ought to be

thankful for. The jack stands at your elbow."

Prince Rupert looked out over the harbour, and the black ships, at the

blue waters of the Carib sea beyond. "My poor fellows," he said, "my

glorious soldiers, your loyalty has cost you dear."

"It is the fortune of war," said D'Ogeron, sipping his goblet. "A

fighting man must be ready to take what befalls. Our turn may come

to-morrow."

"I am ready, Monsieur, to take my chances. It is not on my conscience

that I ever avoided them."

"Your Highness is a philosopher, and I take it your officers are the

same. Yesterday they rode with you boot to boot in the field, ate with

you on the same lawn, spoke with you in council across the same

drum-head. To-day they would be happy if they could be your lackeys.

But the chance is not open to them; they are lackeys to the buccaneers."

Prince Rupert started to his feet. "Officers, did you say?"

"Just officers. The great Monsieur Cromwell has but wasteful and

uncommercial ways of conducting a war. He captures a gentle and

gallant officer; he does not ask if the poor man desires to be put up

to ransom, but just claps the irons on him, and writes him for the next

shipment to these West Indies, as though he were a common pikeman."

The Governor toyed with his goblet and sighed regretfully--"'Twas a

sheer waste of good hard money."

"And you?"

"We kept to the Lord General's classification, and sold gentle officer,

and rude common soldier on the same footing. There was no other way.

We were too far off your England here to treat profitably for ransom.

Besides, the estates of most were wasted during the war, and what was

left lay in Monsieur Cromwell's hands."

"All the gentlemen of England are beggared. They sent their plate to

the King's mint to be coined for the troops' pay; they pawned their

lands; and now they are sent to be butcher-boys to horny-handed

cow-killers. I think you have dealt harshly, Monsieur D'Ogeron."

"It was your war," said the Governor good-humouredly, "not mine; and

the harshness of it was out of my hands. The men were sent here, and I

dealt with them in the most profitable way. If it would have paid me

to weed out the officers, I should have done it. As it didn't, I e'en

let them stay herded in with the rest."

"But surely, Monsieur, you must have some regard for gentle blood?"

"Mighty little, _mon prince_, mighty little. I had it once in the old

days, in France; but I lost it out here. It's not in fashion. A quick

eye and a lusty arm we value in Tortuga and Hispaniola more than all

the titles a king could bestow. Gentility will not fill the belly

here, neither will it ward off the Spaniards, neither will it despoil

them of their ill-got treasure to provide the wherewithal for an honest

carouse. What we value most is a little coterie of Brethren of the

Coast sailing in with a deep fat ship, with their numbers few and their

appetites whetted. To those we are ready to bow, as we did once in the

old countries to knights and belted earls--till, that is, they have

spent their gains."

"And then?"

"Why, then, _mon prince_, we are apt to grow uncivil till we see their

sterns again as they go off to search the seas for more. Oh, I tell

you, it's a different life here from the old one at home; and a

rustling blade, if he can contrive to remain alive, soon makes his way

to the top, be he gentle, or be he mere whelp of a seaport drab."

"You state your policy with clearness. This is not known in France,

and there, I make bold to say, Monsieur, it would not be liked."

The Governor drank deeply. "Here's to France," quoth he, "and may she

always stay a long way off! I'm my own master here, and have a strong

place and a lusty following."

"Stronger places have been taken," said the Prince.

"Not if they were snugly guarded," said D'Ogeron. "I use my

precautions. There are two entrances to this harbour, but only one

channel. There are many bays, but only one anchorage. Your ships are

in it now; my batteries command them."

"Monsieur," said Rupert stiffly, "do you distrust me?"

"Except for my own rogues, and you are not one of them----"

"Thank God!"

"Except for my own rogues, I trust no one."

"Monsieur," said Rupert, "I am not in the habit of having my word

doubted. I have had the honour to inform you before that I came in

peace."

"So have done others, and yet I have seen them bubble out with war when

it suited their purpose."

"Monsieur, you may have your own individual code of honour in these

barbarous islands, but I still preserve mine. You have seen fit to put

in question my honesty. I must ask you to call back your words, or

stand by the consequences."

The Governor winked a vinous eye. "You don't catch me fighting a

duel," said he. "The honour of the thing we may leave out of the

question: we don't deal in it here. And beyond that, I have all to

lose and nothing to gain."

"Monsieur," said the Prince, "you have your sword, and I have mine. I

can force you either to fight or apologise."

The Governor wagged his goblet slowly. "Neither one nor the other,"

said he. "Alphonse," he cried, raising his voice, "haul across that

curtain."

There was a scuffle of feet. A piece of drapery that seemed to hide

the wall behind the Prince's chair clattered back on its rings, and

showed another room, long, narrow, and dusky. In it at the farther end

was a demi-bombarde, a small wide-mouthed piece on a gun carriage, with

a man standing beside its breech holding a lighted match over the

touch-hole.

The Prince turned sharply to look, and then slewed round to the table

again. "It covers me well, but I have known a single shot to miss."

"But not a bag of musket balls, _mon prince_, with a small charge

behind them," said the Frenchman politely.

"They would be safer," said Rupert. "Yes, Monsieur, it is a pretty

trap, but to me it scarcely seems one that a gentleman would set for a

guest."

D'Ogeron shrugged his shoulders. "It contents me," he said, reaching

for the black-jack. "I have ceased to be a gentleman. I am Governor

of Tortuga."

"If I cannot compel you just now to fight me for your discourtesy,"

said Rupert, "at least I will not drink with you." And he spilled his

liquor on the floor.

"Every man to his humour," said D'Ogeron. "The jack's half full yet,

but I'm not averse to doing double duty. This sangoree puts heart in a

man. Now touching these _engagés_ we started from: there is a way open

by which you can serve them quite to their fancy. All who are left,

that is, for I make no doubt that some have not survived. Newcomers

are apt to be full of vexatious faults, and the cow-killers are not

wont to be lenient when their convenience is injured. Give out that

you are here with money, and ready to buy, and within a month I'll have

all of them brought here to look at, with their prices written in plain

figures. Say the word, _mon prince_, and I'll send out news this very

day."

It irked Prince Rupert to deal with this man, it irked him to sit in

the same room with such a fellow; but the woes of those that had fought

by his side cried aloud for relief, so he swallowed back his nausea and

spoke him civilly. Besides, if the Governor chose to pocket the

affronts and go on sipping his sangoree, it was the Governor's affair.

So the Prince said that he was ready to buy back the liberty of those

officers who had served his late majesty King Charles in the wars, and

was prepared to remain in Tortuga harbour with his three ships till

these were brought in.

"Well and good," said D'Ogeron. "But I must warn your Highness that

prices will rule high. When your very excellent friends were sold

here, newly out of the ship, being raw with wounds, and galled with

their shackles, and damaged with scurvy, they went cheap. But since

then they have been in training as hunters, and porters of meat, and

makers of bucan, and dressers of hide, and so they have acquired value

as handicraftsmen. Moreover, when ransom is spoken of, it is always

our custom to acquire new interest in a prisoner. You take me?"

"I do. Had I one tenth of your commercial power, Monsieur, the King,

my master, for whom I came out here to glean the seas, could keep a

richer court at the Hague."

The Governor leaned across the table and stared. "Do I hear you say

you are working for Charles II.?"

"Certainly. I am his servant since his late Majesty's murder. His

kingdom for the nonce is unhappily in the hands of others, and with it

the natural revenues. A king must have a court; a court needs money; I

sail the seas to win that money: the thing is simple."

Monsieur D'Ogeron hit the table. "The thing is unheard of," he cried.

"Loyalty is a home-growth which does not bear transporting across the

seas. In France, in the old days, I was the king's man--I forget what

king's. I left France full of that loyalty, and for a while it lasted.

But when my ship ran into the trade winds, it began to ooze from me,

and when I got set down here, in these islands of the Caribbean, there

was but a dim memory of that loyalty left. France is so many a weary

league away, that the King's shadow cannot reach across the seas. For

a while I missed it; for a while there was a blank in my life. And

then I found another master: a master whom I could always admire and

strive for; a master whose every action interested me, whose every woe

was mine; and him I have served this many years with infinite zest and

appetite. Never had man a master he wished to serve so well."

"May I hear his name?" the Prince asked.

The Governor turned to a silver mirror which hung against the wall, and

lifted his goblet.

"I drink to him," he said, "with all heartiness. His name is Camille

Baptiste D'Ogeron, patron of the buccaneers."

"And skimmer of their gains?"

"Skimmer of their gains, most certainly, _mon prince_, or why Governor

of Tortuga? What am I else but a king? I have no hollow pomp about my

court, it is true, but I could have it if I chose to pay. I could have

drums beat in my path when I went abroad, and powder burned upon my

saint's day. I could have courtiers in silken robes and golden chains,

and a palace with forty rooms instead of four. But I take only what

suits my whim. My visitors come in tarry breeks or the bloodied shirts

of cow-hunters. My attendants can make a roast, or brew a bowl, or

slit a throat with equal glibness. My enemies, when they call, leave

behind them their heads on the spikes above the gateway. And I have

also the delicate joys of domesticity. Though I have been widowed

these nine times, I married a new wife brought in by one of the ships

only the other day, and already she adores me."

Prince Rupert sighed. "I can conceive," he said, "that the situation

would not be intolerable for some men. There is a certain relish in

robbing the Spaniard."

"More for you, _mon prince_, than for me. They are Pope's men, and I

was a Pope's man bred myself. You were always Protestant."

"I glory in it," said Rupert fervently, "though it has made me a ruined

fellow from my birth up."

"There you are, then," said the Governor. "Take your revenge, which is

here ready to your hand, and grow rich at one and the same time."

"I shall take my revenge," said the Prince quietly, "and I shall take

revenge for others also. But it is my King who will have the riches."

"Yet, if it could be otherwise," said the Frenchman musingly: "if you

would follow what is in the atmosphere out here, and be content to

fight for your own hand, what a glorious future there would be before

you! There are with you three ships in harbour now: a very tolerable

commencement. You could take them up a creek to careen, and clean them

from the weeds of the voyage, and re-set-up your rigging, and get all

put a-tauto. You have pretty enough crews on board already. I can get

you also those of your late soldiers whom Monsieur Cromwell sent me,

and who will be none the worse for their short apprenticeship with the

buccaneers. There are hundreds of the buccaneers themselves that would

join in such an enterprise, and I also could lend a couple of

well-found ships to assist it.

"And what is this enterprise?"

"Seize every plate ship that's sent home to Spain. Sack every city on

the Main in its turn, squeeze out all the gold, and sail away and leave

its people to spin more."

"You propose I should do this as your lieutenant?"

"That sticks in your gizzard, eh, _mon prince_? But, as it chanced, I

was not going to make any such suggestion. I never aspire to having

men of your calibre as my subjects. They would take too much looking

after, and I have no wish to find one from below climbing up and

trampling on me, and becoming chief in my place. This governorship has

been too hard to get, and is too snug a property to jeopardise for the

mere ambition of having Rupert Palatine for a mere week or so as my

dutiful lieutenant." And Monsieur D'Ogeron winked pleasantly. "No,

_mon prince_, go and seize an island for yourself, and set up a

government, and we will call ourselves allies. We will form a

buccaneer kingdom with a dual head, and there will be no limit to our

prosperity. Look at the crop there is at hand: wine, women, meat,

corn, silks, pearls and gold in all abundance. All the strong men will

flock to us and help in the taking. The Spanish power will melt away

like sand cliffs before a sea."

Prince Rupert thrust back his chair from the table and smote the arm

with his fist. "Have done, Monsieur!" he said. "It is against my

honour that I should listen to you more. I came out here as a King's

man, and if life remains to me, it will be as his man that I go back."

"But," said the Governor, with a puzzled brow, "your King's Cause is

distant; it is weak; it is nearly on the ground; it is doubtful if it

ever pulls round again. Nay, your Highness, by this time, for aught

you know, the Second Charles has followed the way of his father, and

there is no Cause left."

"Then I shall build it up again and fight for it. In Europe, Monsieur,

we do not esteem a man any the less honourable because he keeps his

fidelity to a Cause that is for the moment drooping."

"Well," said Monsieur D'Ogeron, "I am thankful that I have left Europe

behind, with those old unpracticable ideas." He leaned back in his

chair and stretched. Then he laughed craftily, and went on with his

speech. "As it seems, then, we cannot trade over this idea of a

buccaneer kingdom, your Highness, let us go back to the question of

ransoming these _engagés_. You are prepared to pay good hard money

down?"

The Prince frowned. "For a gentleman, Monsieur, you are unpleasantly

commercial."

"Your Highness rather wearies me," said the Governor, with a whimsical

shrug. "Gentility I have dropped, as being quite unprofitable; and as

for keenness over a bargain, why, there I could skin a Jew; so now you

have a fair and final warning."

"I have no money at present."

"I did not suppose you had. Ships which sail from here to the Old

World are ofttimes rich; but ships coming here, never. Since history

began, they have always been barren and empty--or why else should they

come?"

"I will make payments, Monsieur, out of the first prizes which come

into my hands."

"I hear your Highness say it. But--Tortuga is not Europe, and we give

mighty little credit here. If you were known to be fighting for your

own hand, it might be different. But when you openly say you are

merely an admiral of some king across the water, you speak beyond our

simple minds altogether. I answer not only for myself: I answer for

the whole community. You must offer some other scheme, _mon prince_,

or your friends must stay on as _engagés_ and work out their time.

Come, think it out. I do not wish to hurry you."

Prince Rupert sat with his chin in his fingers and pondered deeply, but

no schemes came to him. It irked him terribly to think that the men

who had fought by his side during all the battles of the war should be

left unrescued in this horrible servitude, whilst he was at hand with

the will to set them free, and only lacking of the bare means. And if

fighting would have done the deed, the Prince would have recked little

of the odds against him. But though he captured all Tortuga, with its

forts and batteries, and killed the Governor, yet he would be no more

forward in his design. For those he wished to relieve were scattered

in ones and twos far over the Savannahs of Hispaniola across the

strait, and nothing but the good-will of Monsieur D'Ogeron could make

the buccaneers, their masters, bring them in.

The Governor at the end of the table smoked tobacco and sipped his

sangoree. He seemed quite contented, and perhaps a little drowsy.

Prince Rupert stood up, and began to walk to and fro across the

chamber, as was his wont when thinking deeply. But scarcely had he

left his chair, when the roar of an explosion shook the place, and the

chamber was filled with smoke, and the chair itself and a part of the

table beyond were blown to the smallest of splinters.

But at the head of the table the Governor sat unmoved, and, as it

seemed, unstartled; and presently he began to laugh. "'Fore God," he

said, "that was a sleepy rogue of a cannonier. Has your Highness

guessed what happened?

"No," said the Prince. "Your efforts at hospitality are somewhat

beyond me."

"Why, the man with the lighted match in his hand has been growing more

and more drowsy, and nodding and nodding, till at last his hand drooped

down over the priming. When the piece fired I chanced to look round,

and saw him waken and start, as though he had been hit himself. 'Twas

a most comic sight."

"Through his carelessness I have had a most narrow escape."

"But you did escape," said the Governor. "And the damage done to the

chair and table I will forgive him for the amusement he afforded me."

"I must request you, Monsieur," said the Prince, "to order this man a

flogging."

The Governor was all affability. "_Mon prince_," quoth he, "if it

pleases you, he shall be flogged first and hanged afterwards. Or would

you prefer that he should have his wakefulness improved by a generous

taste of the rack? You have had a start. I had forgot you were newly

from Europe and would care for these things. We think little enough of

such small humours here, so long as we are not hurt. But you are fresh

from the Old World, and my man shall pay dearly enough for his

indiscretion."

The Prince frowned. "I wonder, Monsieur," he said, "that you do not

punish the man as taking away your only guard over me."

This time Monsieur D'Ogeron laughed outright. "_Mon prince_," he said,

"you have small idea of the completeness of my defences. Were it my

will, I could have you safe in an unbreakable prison before another

second had passed."

"I do not take you, Monsieur."

The Governor rubbed his hands appreciatively. "My dungeons," he said,

"are beneath this chamber, rock-hewn, deep and vastly unpleasant. The

floor on which we stand is so ingeniously contrived that at will any

portion of it can be made to give way, and drop an inconvenient person

into safety below. I have a trusty knave at hand attending on the

bolts."

"Who is probably asleep, like your other fellow."

The Governor frowned. "I do not think so, your Highness. But we will

soon see. I might call your attention to the embrasure of the window

behind you. In case other foothold goes, it will afford you a scanty

seat." Then, lifting his voice, he cried loudly for "Jean Paul!"

On the instant a great flap of the floor beneath the Prince's feet

swung downwards, and had not Rupert been warned, there is not a doubt

but that he would have been shot helplessly through the gap into the

prison beneath. But as it was, with a scramble he reached the ledge of

the window, and sat there cursing aloud at Tortuga and all the monkeys

and the monkeyish tricks it contained.

It was plain the Governor wished to laugh--for when half drunk he was a

merry enough ruffian--but he saw the Prince's rage and choked back his

mirth. "Nay, your Highness," he said, "you brought it on yourself by

doubting whether my man Jean Paul stayed awake. I have known all my

fellows long. Alphonse drowses sometimes when the heat is great and he

has liquor in him, but, Jean Paul never. That is why I have set Jean

Paul over the strings which govern the bolts, and he has never failed

me, and never pulled the wrong string. And it is no light business to

keep the tally of them either, for there is a separate string for every

square fathom of the floor."

"You keep a most delicate care of your health, Monsieur."

"It is necessary," said the Governor, with a shrug. "I have some queer

callers. Men in these seas want many things, and when they cannot get

them for the asking, they are not averse to using violence if they

think it will succeed. I dare lay a wager, _mon prince_, that if you

saw those late officers of yours, which Monsieur Cromwell sent me,

standing by the harbour side, you would not think twice about clapping

them on board and carrying them to sea without a piastre of recompense?"

"It would be my bare duty to gentlemen who have been my very faithful

comrades."

"And your King's servants. How far would his present Majesty go

towards ransoming these unlucky soldiers?"

"He would go far, Monsieur. I have no commission from him to speak

upon the matter: I could have no commission, seeing that his Majesty

knew no more than I that Cromwell has sent unfortunate cavaliers to be

enslaved in these savage seas; but I take it upon myself to say that

his Majesty would sacrifice much to see them relieved."

"Well," said the Governor, "if he sends out money, I will see the

matter most circumspectly attended to."

"He can send out no money," said Rupert gloomily. "His Majesty has

nothing save for what I earn for him."

The Governor spread his hands. "Then what can you expect? There is

nothing for it but to let your good friends continue their employment,

unless----"

"Unless what, Monsieur?"

The Governor dropped his _insouciance_ and stood to his feet. The

drink seemed to warm into life within him. The Prince was still

sitting absurdly enough in the window embrasure, with the fallen trap

yawning beneath his feet. D'Ogeron strode up and faced him across the

gap. "Give me the services of your fleet for six short months," he

cried, "and the men shall be yours. We will send the ships away

to-morrow to careen. I will despatch messengers, and these cavaliers

of yours shall join them before they are cleaned. Then they shall sail

away to harry a Spanish town on the Main, and their earnings during

those six months shall count for all the ransom."

"It is a bargain," Rupert said. "The King will forgive my alienating

his revenues for the sake of these cavaliers who have served him so

well. So, Monsieur, I sell myself into the service of the Governor of

Tortuga for six desperate months."

"Stay a moment," said the Frenchman. "I made no design on your

Highness's utility. It is part of my design that the fleet should sail

under an officer of my own, and that your Highness should stay on here,

and accept my poor hospitality."

"And for why, Monsieur? Do you honour me by doubting my capacity as an

admiral?"

"By no means. I have the highest opinion of your fighting genius, _mon

prince_. But I would like to ensure that the fleet, after glutting

itself with spoil on the Spanish Main, called back in this harbour

here, and did not sail direct to Helveotsluys or some other port of

Holland."

"So, Monsieur, you doubt my poor honesty? You do well to put a barrier

between us, for this is a killing matter."

"I have learned to doubt everybody, your Highness; but I doubt you

doubly because of your loyalty to this king without a kingdom, by whom

you have been sent out a-foraging. Once you and your cavaliers had the

gold aboard and under hatches, it might come to your memories that this

king of yours was poor, and wanted immediate nourishment, and that

Monsieur de Tortuga could bear to have his account settled on a later

day. You take me?"

"I cannot bargain with you," said Rupert violently. "I will not be

separated from my fleet. But if hard necessity makes me desert these

unfortunate cavaliers now, be assured that I do not forget them. And

when opportunity arrives, and I come back to rescue them, look to

yourself, Monsieur."

"You may trust me to do it," said the Frenchman. "I am always ready to

receive my visitors fittingly. That is why I remain Governor of

Tortuga. Well, your Highness, for the present negotiations seem at an

end between us. To-morrow I suppose you will buy what food you have

moneys for, and draw anchor, and be off outside towards the Main, to

set about your earnings. But for the present I have a kindliness

towards you, although in truth you have yielded me but very slender

deference, and I would e'en let you have a passing look at these good

comrades from whom you have been so cruelly parted."

"What, you have them here, then?"

"Some of them are coming to the Island now with their produce. Looking

over your Highness's shoulder through the window, I saw three

canoe-loads of them disappear behind the point. If it please you to

take a short promenade in my company, you can watch their march when

they land."

"Monsieur," said the Prince, "I accept your condescension. But first

you must make me a pathway across this gap. I cannot fly."

"That can soon be done," said the Governor. He put a finger through

his lips and whistled shrilly. A man stepped into the room from behind

a curtain. "Jean Paul," said the Governor, "the drawbridge." The man

lugged a plank from beneath the table, threw it across the space in the

flooring, and assisted the Prince to cross. The Governor himself

handed his walking-cane and plumed hat, and together they passed out of

the chamber, Jean Paul and Alphonse following, with hands upon their

pistols.

They walked leisurely through the defences of the castle, for Monsieur

D'Ogeron was by no means loth to advertise his strength, and arm in arm

they went out through the massive gateway, with its decoration of

shrivelled heads, once worn by Monsieur D'Ogeron's enemies. They paced

with gentle gait along the sun-dried path beyond, the Prince

discoursing on philosophy, and engraving, and the gentler sciences,

according to his wont, as though he had no thought beyond, and the

Governor speaking of the fellows they passed, and the quantity of gold

each in his time had wrested from the Spaniards. The Governor had but

one thought to his head; but the Prince, whatever his thoughts might

be, had always elegant words on other matters with which to cloak them.

The Prince used his eyes keenly as he walked, but could discover little

of that lavish wealth of which the Governor spoke so glibly. The wine

shops were the most considerable buildings in the place, and these were

mere thatched sheds without walls. Litter and squalor and waste lay

everywhere. Rich silks and other merchandise were trodden down in the

kennel along with garbage and filth. There was no laden ship in just

then, with a crew to be fleeced, and the women of the place hung about

in disconsolate knots bewailing their draggled finery. The

dwelling-houses were mere hovels of mud and leaves: the only warehouse

for goods was the open beach.

The Governor must have read the Prince's glance, for he shrugged an

apology. "You see us," he said, "in a state of _ennui_. But let one

shipload of plunder come from the Main, and another of wines arrive

from Bordeaux, and the place is a babel of life and carousal.

Buccaneers returned from the foray are the merriest creatures

imaginable. They will have none round them that are not cheerful.

They set their casks of rum abroach in the path, and swear to pistol

all who will not drink with them. They strut in clothes that would

look fine on an emperor. They dice for black-jacks full of fair gold

coin. They love the ladies with a vehemence that only seamen can

command. They sing, they shout, they scream, they fight, and they

scatter their plunder with a free-handedness that is more than

glorious. They count it as shame if they have a piece-of-eight

remaining to them after a week ashore, and then away they go to harry

the seas for more. Oh, 'tis a rustling time here in Tortuga when we

have a laden ship in from the harvesting; and a Governor, who must

needs drink level with the best, needs a hard head to make full use of

his opportunities."

The Prince listened with a courteous bow, and picked his way with

niceness amongst the squalors of the path; and presently they reached

the outskirts of the sheds and the hovels, and walked between walls of

tropical foliage that arched with delicate tracery into a graceful roof

far above their heads. Gorgeous butterflies danced before their path,

and flowers administered to them of their choicest scents. They came

into an open glade hung with beauty, and the Prince exclaimed that he

had been led into fairyland.

"Well," said the Governor, with a laugh, "I hope your Flightless will

be contented with the fairies, for here they come."

A man appeared from a path at the farther side of the glade, and after

him another, and then others. They trod with heaviness, being

ponderously laden; and the leader, tearing a switch from a tree,

stepped on one side and beat the others lustily as they passed him.

"_Dépêchez-vous!_" he screamed. "Hurry, you slow-footed dogs!" And

the train with infinite weariness shuffled along at a quicker gait.

They were all dressed in rude thigh-boots of raw cowhide, with loose

shirts on their upper bodies stained purple with constant bloodyings.

They wore shaggy beards, and shaggy uncut hair, full of sticks and

refuse. Their faces and arms were puffed with insect-bites. They were

unspeakably disgustful to look upon, and yet the Prince regarded them

with a softening eye.

Every third or fourth man was armed with a _machete_ which dangled

against his thigh, and a long-stocked buccaneering piece which he bore

in his hand; and with his spare hand he carried a switch and belaboured

the others. It was only the unarmed men who bore the burdens--one a

great parcel of crackling hides, another a skinful of tallow, another a

package of bucaned cow-meat, another a hog bucaned whole, and so on;

and these were the _engagés_, the slaves for three years of the

acknowledged buccaneers who were with the train, and the slaves of

others who remained behind in Hispaniola to continue the hunting.

They marched across the glade, like men who had lost all interest in

life, each watching the heels of the one preceding; and Rupert devoured

them with his eyes. Then one tall fellow stumbled over a fallen bough,

and sent his burden flying, and his owner fell upon him with a very

ecstasy of switching, and the Prince stepped out and bade the buccaneer

desist. He did so sulkily enough, and the _engagé_ scrambled to his

feet and resumed his pack. He was a huge red-haired man, with a livid

scar across his eyebrows.

"By God!" cried the Prince, "I should know that scar."

The fellow looked up. "The Prince!" he said--"Prince Rupert! Has your

Highness come in for misfortune too?"

"My share. You carried the name of Coghill, if I do not disremember?"

"Coghill," said the fellow, "and rode with your Highness through many a

noisy day."

"Especially at Edgehill, lad, and earned that wipe across the face by

saving my poor life."

"I did not wish to recall the debt, your Highness," said the fellow,

"being in this plight. It was General Fairfax that give it me. He'd a

lusty arm, and could sit a horse."

The Prince wrung his hands. "I would I could serve you, lad," he said,

"but I am in sorry plight myself, and the King is as bad."

"Well," said the fellow, with a sigh, "I must make shift to serve my

time. I'm tough, and a common soldier looks to taking what befalls.

But for officers that was delicate nurtured, it is different. This

life kills them off like flies."

The Prince groaned. "I am powerless, lad," he said--"powerless."

"If your Highness could stretch a point," the fellow persisted, "it

would be good for the Colonel. He will die else."

"What colonel?"

"Sir John Merivale,--who other? Has not your Highness picked him out?"

The man turned round. "Oh, there he is, just coming into the open. He

has seen much misfortune since Old Noll took him at Coventry, and sent

him over seas."

Prince Rupert followed the trooper's glance. A gray-haired old man,

the last of the train, was staggering into the clearing under a

horrible burden. He had been apportioned off to carry a side of fresh

beef, killed that very morning, and was bearing it, buccaneer fashion,

with his head stuck through a hole in the centre. His knees bent under

him with the weight, his frail hands gripped feebly at the moist edges

of the joint, but his proud old back was as straight as ever it had

been in the days when he sat in his saddle at the head of the King's

guards; and when a fellow _engagé_ helped him lower his dripping burden

to the ground, he thanked the man with the easy courtesy of a superior.

The Prince stepped out to greet him. "Sir John," he cried, "it grieves

me terribly to see you in this shocking plight."

"Ah, Prince," the old man said, "you have caught me somewhat unawares,

and my present service is at times none of the most delicate. How goes

the Cause? We get sadly behind the times here both in news and

attire." And with that he incontinently fell down and fainted.

Prince Rupert turned to the Governor. "Monsieur D'Ogeron," he said

gravely, "I surrender. For six months the fleet is yours on the

conditions you offered. Whether I do right or whether I do wrong is

another matter, and when the time comes I shall answer for it to the

King, my master. But in the meantime I am Rupert Palatine, and I

cannot live on to see officers of mine condemned to a plight like this.

The opportunity is yours, and you make your gains."

"_Mon prince_," said the Governor delightedly, "I honour your charity.

We will have a great time together here in Tortuga drinking success to

the fleet whilst it is away."