THE MERMAID AND THE ACT OF FAITH
Surely men were never born with less eye to the future than these
Brethren of the Coast, or Buccaneers, as they are more modernly named.
Apart from slaying the wild cattle of Hispaniola and bucaning the
resultant meat, their two sole industries were fighting and spoiling
the Spaniard in the Carib Sea and on the Main, and then frittering away
their hard-gotten gains at Tortuga over the wine shops and the hussies
of the town, or against the cogged dice of Monsieur D'Ogeron, the
Governor, up at his castle.
It was in vain that Captain Wick and that most noble of quartermasters,
Prince Rupert, pointed out to the ship's company dazzling schemes for
future gain. "They didn't know;" they "weren't feeling greedy;" it
"seemed but a doubtful investment," and two or three, more candid than
the rest, would be condemned if they took the pains to earn so much as
a single piece-of-eight more, till they swilled what had been got down
their thirsty necks. In fine, they were men for whom the morrow was so
risky that they had grown to the habit of living only for the day, and
it was one of their highest ambitions to have nothing in their pocket,
if they should chance to be killed, that would benefit an enemy's purse.
[Illustration: 'OH, I SAY WHAT I THINK,' RETORTED WATKIN WITH A SOUR
LOOK]
So it was finally decided by a council of all hands to cruise back
towards Tortuga, taking of course any gleanings in the shape of laden
ships that they might be lucky enough to find on the way, and the poor
Secretary's heart sank at the thought. She knew how unpleasant would
be the attentions of the nasty hussies of that town to her revered
patron, Prince Rupert.
The meeting, however, with another ship of the buccaneers, sailing
plunder-wards, put an end to this wretched plan with a pleasant
suddenness. She was under the command of a Captain named Watkin, a
rude, strong fellow whom the Prince had met before in a humbler
capacity. Imprimis, Watkin and his company had themselves just sailed
out from Tortuga, and left the place absolutely barren of liquor. This
was enough to check Wick's silly fellows at once in their voyage. The
newcomers' second argument was even stronger to bring about a
conference. They had with them seven casks of rum, the last remainder
of the Tortuga merchants' stock, and they invited all the ship's
company to come across for a carouse there in mid sea.
A gale was blowing at the time which would have made more cautious
seamen snug down their canvas and get preventer tackles rove. But
these reckless fellows argued that if they would have put their ship up
alongside an enemy, never mind what weather prevailed, why then there
was all the more reason why they should not be timid at rasping
bulwarks with a friend when politely invited to despoil him of his
liquor. So when due salutes had been fired by both sides, and noise
enough made to scare the very fishes, the vessels were forced together,
and lay there grinding and splintering and in imminent danger of
causing one another to founder incontinently.
With shouts and songs Wick's buccaneers scrambled over the leaping
bulwarks, making passes with their sheathed hangers, which the others
warded off with black-jacks and drinking horns. And indeed so fierce
was their preliminary horseplay, and so shrewd their jesting blows,
that two or three pairs drew and laid into one another in hard bloody
earnest before the rum casks were set abroad and gave them other
matters to think about.
At first it seemed that the ships were to be left to their cuddle, and
with the sea running as it was, and the heavy wind now filling the
canvas and now setting it aback, the pair would not have been very long
in knocking one another into their primitive staves. But Wick had some
shreds of prudence left, and when the Secretary, desperately fearful
for her dear patron's life, implored him to take some steps so that
they should not all be uselessly drowned there together, the fellow
with his own knife cut the grapples that held the ships to their deadly
embrace, and made some of the buccaneers pass his own vessel astern at
the end of a stout hawser. She rode there dizzily enough and with much
jolting and creaking of fabric, but for the time she was beyond doing
further damage, and moderately safe from receiving it; and meanwhile
the crowd of buccaneers on the deck swigged at the rum, and roared
their songs, and laughed and swore at the water which came swilling
about their knees when the vessel in her rollings shipped a sea.
It says something for the recklessness of these rude men and their love
for carousal that they could have taken part in such a scene. They
were in the midst of hostile seas, with no resources but their own for
reliance; a gale was blowing that might well have sent timid folk to
their prayers; neither crew had (as it turned out) above four days'
food between them and starvation, and yet they held as little dread of
the consequences, and put as much heart into the rum-drinking, the
dicing, the bawling of choruses, the firing of salutes, and the other
ridiculous pranks of a debauch, as though they had been reeling about
the wine-shops of Tortuga, or toping in the dinner-chamber of Monsieur
D'Ogeron. Night fell, and the wind grew noisier (as is its custom with
the dark) and the run of the sea became more dreadful; but none of
these things taught them sobriety. Indeed when they had lit the ship
with her battle-lanterns, they swore the deck was as good as a
ballroom, and set to dancing and capering about, whilst the water which
she took over her sides swirled and eddied about their waists.
Only one item in the whole of that horrid night's array of terrors
quelled these buccaneers even into a moment's sobriety. A cry, a
startled cry, went up that there was a mermaid swimming close abeam,
and the song snapped off in the middle of a bar, and the rum cup halted
in mid-air. Some crossed themselves, some dropped on their knees and
fumbled at a prayer, and a few pious spirits, less drunk than the rest,
trolled out a quavering psalm as the best safeguard which occurred to
them. There is no doubt but what the courage of all of them was
woefully shook, and the secretary, though indeed she could see no
mermaid, owing to the blackness of the night, will ingeniously confess
to being at one with them in their tremours.
But Prince Rupert, with his accustomed bravery, rallied the ships'
companies into steadiness again. He urged them to pass up powder from
the magazine, and get shot from the racks round the hatches, and stand
by the guns. And when Captain Wick and the other buccaneer commander
chided him, he admitted plainly that he had never heard of a mermaid
being shot, but at the same time professed his personal willingness to
loose off a culverin or a saker at one if she should come within range.
"It's my poor opinion, gentlemen," said he, "that the creatures have
never been killed because no one as yet had the impudence to shoot at
them. There must be a beginning to all things, and I am quite ready to
take the risk of this matter on my own proper shoulders, if indeed I
could see the mark. But to tell the truth I have seen no mermaid, and
it's my belief there is none."
"They sighted her out yonder, abeam," said Wick.
"So I heard. But my eyes seem of but indifferent quality, messieurs.
I've looked, but be split if I can see her. Mind, I offer no cause for
quarrel: I do not say she has not been sighted: I merely say that my
own eyes--and I've searched with some scientific curiosity--have not
been fortunate enough to make her out. And what's more, I'm looking
now and still can see nothing but shadows and water."
Upon which Wick and the other buccaneers took their courage with both
hands, and began to look out also; whereupon it appeared that the
mermaid had sunk or swum away.
The crews went back to the rum casks little the worse for the
experience, but it was plain that Wick was shaken. "It's a warning,"
said Wick, "and some of us here will have to pay. A mermaid does not
come for nothing."
"I am ready to take my risks," said Rupert lightly. "Indeed, if the
lady pays us a second visit, I shall hope to see her features more
accurately. To tell the truth, Captain, I came out here with some
curiosity about your mermaids, and water-monks, and other monstrosities
of these seas, and it's beginning to die away."
"What," said Wick, "your lordship's seen some of them and they were not
so terrific as you looked for?"
"Why, no," said Rupert, "the fact is I've seen none of them."
Captain Wick dipped up another horn of rum and nodded his head over it.
"Well, your Worship," said he, "here's hoping that when your education
on the matter comes, you may not find it too disastrous. Every man
who's sailed these seas for long knows what mermaids can do, and I tell
you straight that I for one should be the last to anger them. The good
Lord grant that the mermaiden we sighted meant nothing bad, though it
sticks in my mind that she came as a warning. Here's luck and dry
skins to us all," said he, and poured the rum down his throat.
The coming of this mermaid, as has been said, sobered the buccaneers
for the moment, but once she was gone again, rum soon washed the memory
of her visit from their minds. They roared at their songs till the
gale itself was outshouted, they danced about in the seas that swept
the decks and tumbled foolishly in the scuppers, and not content with
having the ship lit with her battle-lanterns, they must needs set a tar
barrel blazing and flaring on the cook's sand-hearth, to the imminent
peril of every soul on board. Wick presently was swigging at the rum,
and playing the zany with the silliest of them, for it is the custom of
many of these buccaneer commanders to curry popularity by joining in
all excesses that may be going, and indeed outdoing all the others in
their extravagances.
But Watkin, the other captain, was a man of different stamp. He did
not spare the liquor indeed, but drink had small effect on him. He was
a man who had a mind for many things. As a ship-captain he owned but
small experience, and indeed was forced to carry a sailing-master to
use the back-staff and the other utensils of navigation. It was more
as a woodsman, and a hunter, and an accurate shot that he carried
skill. But pre-eminently above these he was a man with a brain
enamoured of commerce, and it was because of the handsome and generous
way in which he talked of moneys and gains that he had been elected to
a captaincy. A man who can speak glibly and alluringly of profits can
always find a strong following amongst needy buccaneers.
"Anybody who likes can come round here and collect the dirty coppers,"
said Watkin. "I've no appetite myself for those small scrapings. And
mark you, they're just as hard to get as the bigger things. I've seen
Spaniards fight over a cargo of stinking bulls' hides with a fierceness
that would have done them credit if they had been defending a plate
ship. No, Mr. Prince, my idea is to go out with empty holds (which
we've got now) and come back so loaded down with gold bars and plate
that the decks are half awash. I've got no use for silks, and shawls,
and chests of dainty clothes. I'm going to spend my time earning good
sound silver and gold, or else know the reason why."
"Master Watkin," said the Prince, "in your business ideas you are a man
exactly after my own heart. It's clear to me you've got a place that's
ready for a visit in your mind's eye, and probably had your plans cut
and bucanned long ago."
Watkin sipped his rum and winked. "Well, between you and me, Mr.
Prince, I'm no great seaman, and I know it as well as the next man. So
I leave sea adventures for whoever wants 'em, and for long enough I've
been looking out for a place where one could earn a parcel of honest
plunder elsewise. Now mark you, the Spanish towns on the coast are the
best guarded, because they are always expecting visits from the
buccaneers. So they cost many to storm and sack them. But further
into the country the fortifications are built more for the look and
comfort of the thing than for real use, because they think that
buccaneers are web-footed creatures who dare not venture far away from
the friendly sea. So my idea was to find my town inland, but yet not
too far inland, because when buccaneers return with their plunder, few
of them remain over from the previous fighting, and of these many are
wounded and many are fever-struck, and the rest are well addled with
drink, and such a convoy is easy cut up, as previous experience has
shown."
"You know the conditions of warfare finely."
"You never said a truer thing, Mr. Prince. Here's to your health
again, though I've drunk it before. And now, in your ear, the place
that's going to fill my purse is named Coro. It lies just at the
bottom of the Golfete de Coro. La Vela's the port, and it's some ten
miles away to the Nor'-east and the passes between are sown with gates
and forts and drawbridges, all built very superior." He took a small
stained chart from his pocket, and unrolled it on the deck beneath the
glow of a battle lantern.--"There's the place, Mr. Prince."
"I see. Just on the neck of the Paraguana peninsula. Then, Master
Watkin, if all preparations are made to resist entry on the Eastern
side, I should say that a call could be made with less formality from
the Westward."
Captain Watkin smacked his thigh delightedly. "You've hit it in once.
My strategy's this, Mr. Prince. I want Captain Wick to go in front of
La Vela, and make all the noise there he's capable of. That will bring
the troops tramping down to the batteries and fortifications, and in
the meanwhile I with my merry men will work round into the Golfete and
land at the Westward side, as you have said, and tumble in by the back
door with few to stop us. I've taken care," said Watkin with a sly
wink, "that there shall not be the full quota of troops in the place
when we make our call, or rather I have done my best to that end. But
as you'll know for yourself, Mr. Prince, these _engagés_ are not over
and above reliable."
"_Engagés_?" said Rupert. "I'm afraid I do not quite understand.
Buccaneers' apprentices, do you mean?"
"Just those. They were part of a cargo of prisoners the Lord Protector
Cromwell shipped out to Tortuga--cavaliers or malignants he called
them, but I am so long from home that I forget English politics
now--and Monsieur D'Ogeron sold them to the buccaneers of Hispaniola.
They were the _engagés_ of these same bright fellows who have shipped
with me and whom you see drinking down there on the main deck now; and
as they were ours, body and soul, to do with as we pleased, we set them
ashore some forty miles from Coro as a species of decoy. Indeed we had
only landed them a day before we came up with you, and were standing
off and on to give them time to do their work. Their orders were to
burn, sink, and destroy, to set up faction fights amongst the Indians
if the chance came in their way, and in fact to do what they could to
draw out an expedition from the town. You see my strategy, Mr. Prince?"
"More clearly than your kindness to these _engagés_?"
"Why, what better could they have? it is their bounden duty to make
themselves of use to their masters, and if when they draw the Spaniards
down about their ears they all get killed, why, by the Lord, they've
only themselves to thank for it. They should have learned to fight
better. They're not without promise of a fine reward to give them
keenness. All who do their work and remain alive, and contrive to join
us in Coro when we've took the place, will be given freedom, and made
full Brethren of the Coast with due ceremony and rejoicing. Now I ask
you, what better guerdon could an _engagés_ wish for than that?"
Prince Rupert sighed. "I am a man that's seen a good handful of
service, Master Watkin, but I fear I'm not up to the true buccaneer's
standard of hardiness yet. And besides, you named these poor fellows
as cavaliers, and it sticks in my mind that many amongst them will have
been my old fellow-soldiers in the English wars."
"If I were there to lead them," said Watkin, "I warrant I'd come
through sound enough myself, and bring a good handful in at my heels.
But I'll own they lack a leader. There are several amongst them who
have borne officers' ratings, and I dare say could put troops through
pretty exercises on a parade ground. But we want something more than
mere drill-book out here, as I daresay you are beginning to learn for
yourself. For you I take it, Mr. Prince, were once just a routine
soldier."
"My man," said Rupert, "I am not given to take offence where none is
meant, especially from a fellow who is in his cups, but I'll not have
my previous service sneered at, neither will I have unfortunate
cavaliers spoken of with contempt."
"Oh, I say what I think," retorted Watkin with a sour look.
"Then, sir, you had better take your sword, and I will do you the
honour of crossing it with mine."
Watkin thrust out an underlip. "Mr. Prince," he said, "you may be a
big man where you come from, but let me tell you, that you've a lot to
learn about New World manners yet. Why, you set up to belong to the
Brotherhood of the Coast, and here you're offering to break one of the
first rules. Don't you know, '_all private disputes with a Captain,
duly appointed, shall be left over for settlement till the end of the
cruise?_' And further: '_Whoso draweth upon a Captain, duly appointed,
that man shall be hanged, or put to some such other end as may be
convenient?_' Let me tell you, too, there's no buccaneer in these seas
that would dare to ride down those rules. Why, our good friend,
Captain Wick, that takes such pride in having a man of title beneath
him as quartermaster, would be the first to garter your neck with a
rope. Indeed, I believe it would tickle Wick mightily if he could brag
hereafter amongst the wineshops that once he hanged a _bona-fide_,
genuine-made prince."
"Let it suffice that I threw away most of my rank when I came to my
present nasty company. But for the other matter, Captain Watkin, as I
acted in ignorance of the rules, I am free to acknowledge my error.
Your chastisement shall wait till the fitting season, and when it does
come, I trust you bear me out that I have not omitted to add due usury
for the delay. But touching the present, sir. The flavour of your
company is vastly disagreeable to my palate, and I should take it as
courteous if you would set me ashore in the track of these cavaliers
who are my friends."
"If you want to go and try your hand on the _engagés_," said Watkin
sullenly, "you shall be landed to-morrow. I've had enough of your fine
finicking ways on this ship. I'm not Wick."
In this manner, then, was brought about the separation of Prince Rupert
from the sea expedition of the buccaneers, and Stephen Laughan, who
alone was set upon the shore of the Main in his company, was not sorry
to be rid of their ungenteel society, thinking then, poor fool, that
nothing could be more disagreeable. The beach on which they were cast
was desert; the country beyond, mere forest and jungle; and for
inhabitants, there were wild beasts and still wilder tribes of Indians.
But somewhere in the country was a band of cavaliers, and after so long
a divorce from these old companions, both Rupert and the secretary
hungered mightily to come in touch once more with their manners and
pretty conversation.
Their chance of finding this band of forlorn adventurers was truly
vague enough, but they were not without some trace of direction. "Here
is the very spot where I set the fellows ashore," Watkin had said, "and
you can see for yourself the fire they built to keep away the
mosquitoes from their first camp. Who but raw fools would have
advertised their whereabouts with a smoke like that? But this batch
always seemed to think of comfort first and consequences afterwards.
You see that saw-edged mountain inland? There's an Indian village in a
dead line between the place of the fire and the highest tooth of the
saw, and their orders were to make for the village first. It's likely
they'll have carried those orders out, or they'll have starved else.
They're such poor creatures that they've no sense to find food for
themselves, even in a country that teems with food."
This, in fact, was all the real direction that was given, and Prince
Rupert was too proud a man to ask for more. The other buccaneers had
bawled out wishes for good luck, civilly enough, as the pair were being
put upon the beach, though all decided that the mermaiden must have
appeared as a special warning to the Prince, and advised extra caution
accordingly. The secretary, loving her dear patron so tenderly, and
being so nervous for his safety, could not but fall in with this view,
seeing that these rude mariners must have learned much of the omens and
dangers native to the Carib Sea through sheer familiarity and custom.
But Rupert would have it that the thing was preposterous.
"As if a mermaiden at sea could have influence over an honest man
seeking profit and adventure ashore," said he. "And furthermore," said
he, "I don't believe there was a mermaiden at all." With which brave
saying he led the way into the bush, the slim secretary following at
his heels. The track was easy to follow. The cavaliers, with no
knowledge of woodcraft, had cut their way through the bush, taking
account of neither swamp nor thicket, and though one could not withhold
admiration for their bravery and endurance, it was plain to see that
they must have risked marching into an ambush for every yard of
advance. Their labours must have been terrific. Even following in the
made track taxed all the poor secretary's endurance. The air was a
mere stew of heat, made still more horrible by the swarming mosquitoes.
Serpents and wild beasts threatened one from the forests, and the
morasses stank detestably of fevers.
The work had been done at a heavy enough cost. Scarce a mile was
passed without coming upon the carcass of some poor cavalier who had
fallen, and been abandoned to die, and forthwith became the focus of a
covey of disgusting birds. One man indeed they came upon with a
tremour of life still in him, and the birds sitting round like ghouls
on neighbouring trees. But he was beyond speech, and indeed passed
whilst the Prince stooped over him, and when they left to continue
their march, the rustle of wings from behind told that the birds had
flown down to commence their meal.
It irks the secretary to record matters so vastly impolite as the above
in these memoirs, and indeed many things have been withheld; but in
view of the grave events which follow, it is necessary that the
desperation of this expedition should be clearly shown. What was the
ultimate fate of the unfortunate band of cavaliers that Prince Rupert
was following will probably now never be known. That they acted as a
decoy, as Watkin had intended, was evident enough, for no less than
three large companies of soldiery were despatched from Coro to cut them
up. But none of these, so they afterwards stated, came across the
raiders, and though they all found their traces, none had skill or
endurance sufficient to follow them up. And so it appears that these
poor cavaliers were swallowed up by that inhospitable interior which
lets not even a rumour of its history escape to the outside world, and
whether they were all destroyed, or whether stragglers of them married
and settled amongst the Indians, will remain forever a sealed mystery.
But of the two unfortunates who followed in their track, the history of
their adventures (though it be merely one of unbroken misfortune) must
be given with all its sorrowful detail. Though Rupert would have none
of such morbid theory, the secretary, who in most matters agrees with
her adored patron to the letter, cannot help recording that from the
moment of seeing the mermaiden luck attended none of their efforts.
They were bogged in swamps; they were tormented with the flies; they
ate fruits which gave them colics, and suffered incessantly from the
fevers which are inseparable from these regions. They were, in a word,
half beside themselves with the torments which were native to the
country, and if the secretary had been alone, or with any other leader,
she is free to confess that she would incontinently have lain down to
die five times a day. But Rupert struggled doggedly on, and though
indeed he cursed aloud the fate which led him to an end in so
detestable a country, and sighed a thousand times for one more wild
charge in which he might ride to a genteel death at the head of his
English troops, he never lost his valiant courage, and never had aught
but cheery, pleasant words for his solitary follower. "Fortune may be
blacker still, Stephen, lad," he would cry, "if it can invent a deeper
tint, but I'll never give in to you over the matter of that mermaiden."
In the end, however, they marched along in a kind of stupor, exchanging
no words, and not possessing even the energy to brush away the
mosquitoes from their swollen faces. They struggled on, hand-in-hand,
clutching at branches and tree trunks for support as they passed them,
and the maid, by reason of her fierce love for this adorable Prince,
put forth powers of endurance which astonish her even now to look back
upon. But when at length, in their blind, half-fainting condition they
marched directly into a camp of the Spaniards, they were in no fit
state for any elaborate display of attack or defence. It is true that
Rupert did run one fellow through the lungs, and the secretary's
feebling arm did guard her patron's back through fully two minutes from
attack. But the outcome was beyond question. Their swords were
trundled out of their hands, and they themselves beat to the ground
through sheer weight of blows.
Dully they looked for death, and had no spirit left to resent its
arrival. A clubbed arquebuse poised over the head of the Prince, a
sword was drawn back to stab through the heart of the secretary. But
the officer of the troop came up just then, and was more farseeing than
his followers. Prisoners from the English buccaneers were scarce, and
naturally he wanted to parade his capture; and, after enjoying this
pleasant triumph, why then (as he explained) the Holy Office would be
gratified to take over the bodies of two such vile heretics, and
presently would make them into a very popular public spectacle.
Wrist and ankle irons are part of the ordinary accoutrements of these
Spanish troops, as all Indians they come across they enslave--a very
wasteful proceeding, one would think, as the creatures invariably die
within the year, and are vastly inferior to blacks from the Guinea
coast as labourers. But there the irons were, and quickly the
prisoners were made fast and given food and drink, and left to recruit
as best they could at the bivouac.
The Spaniards made no further progress with their expedition: the
taking of two English prisoners seemed to satisfy their greediest
ambition; and when a day had been allowed them to regain strength, the
column was put in motion again for a return to Coro. The prisoners
were vigilantly guarded, but otherwise they were not ill-treated, for
it was part of the captors' plan that they should enter the city
looking healthy and vigorous, to give colour to the tale that they had
been taken after desperate fighting and resistance. Indeed, the
secretary, who, poor creature, was suffering from that seasonable fever
which they call the calentura, was given a mule for her conveyance, and
had the mortification of seeing her royal patron trudging beside her
afoot whether she would or not. But prisoners are not allowed to pick
and choose in these matters, and when Master Laughan would have leapt
to the ground in spite of the guards, so that the Prince might ride as
befitted his station, the fellows coupled that prisoner's heels beneath
the belly of the beast so that submission was a sheer necessity.
The Prince too laid strict commands upon the secretary on this matter.
"We're in a tight fix," he said, "and we're fools to have got there.
As like as not they'll give us a dog's death of it. But they shall
have their sport out of me as an unknown Englishman and not as Rupert."
The secretary urged a reversal of this decision.
"No use," said the Prince. "They would hang me all the same if they
knew my quality, only they would hang me higher. I have my miserable
pride in the matter, you see. Let me be written down in Europe as
"Missing" or "Vanished," if they choose; but I should die very uneasy
if I thought the world was to know how squalid and obscure a noose it
was that ended me."
Still the secretary urged the point, saying that all men knew Rupert
Palatine, and that even these dreadful Spaniards would not dare to do
him violence, but would offer exchange, or honourable enlargement upon
ransom. But Rupert closed the talk with sudden heat. "I forbid it and
that's enough," he cried. "You grow insufferable with your advisings
upon this occasion. And if you want a threat, I'll deny it if you do
tell 'em my name, and curse you with my last dying breath into the
bargain. So stick that in your mind, Master Laughan."--With which
harsh words he lapsed into a dark, brooding silence, and the secretary,
with her heart near to breaking with love for him, was constrained to
ride the mule without further speech.
It was the first time that Stephen Laughan had ever seen the Prince
thoroughly cast down, and so evidently out of all spirit for the
future, and of a certainty their case seemed absolutely devoid of any
ray of hope. Truly the finger of the mermaiden was showing itself to
any one who was not wilfully blind.
Of that dismal progress to Coro, however, no more need be told. They
arrived outside the city's walls on the fourth day at nightfall, and
the commandant of the soldiers was torn with indecision. He wanted
much to wait outside so as to make triumphant exhibition of his
prisoners by next morning's light, and at the same time he feared the
Indians who were constantly raiding up to the very walls of the city.
And in the end dread of these Indians took the mastery, and the troop
gained admittance through the gates, and they had to be content with
what drums and a multitude of flaring torches could do to call
attention to their show.
There was no limit to the appetite of these Spaniards for triumph. It
might have been an army they had captured instead of two fever-stricken
weaklings. But no one of those who thrust their heads out from the
windows and doorways of the houses cried shame on them for the
paltriness of their exploit, and indeed all the town roused to acclaim
these vainglorious captors by the name of hero, and to spit their nasty
spite at the prisoners. Great mobs turned out into the streets, and
jostled at the soldiers' heels. Here were a brace of these hated
buccaneers, and they lusted to have their will on them. The smug
citizen men would have smashed them to a pulp with their boot heels if
they could have snatched them into reach, and the horrid women would
have torn them like vultures with their nails.
The Captain of the soldiers, however, was not minded that his credit
should end with this popular triumph: he was a man with a keen eye to
his own promotion, and he was wise enough to know that favour comes
chiefly from their idolatrous Church in these Spanish cities. So with
laughing blows he and his men drove the civilians back from their
catch, and shouted out that they were foolish to hurry matters unduly.
"The Holy Office may move slower than your own honoured progress," he
cried, "but, _Señores_, believe me, it is very sure. It will take a
vengeance out of these accursed heretics that you may lick your lips to
think about, and there is a good chance that the city will be treated
to an _auto da fé_. Ho! there, make way! Why do you want to claw a
prisoner when presently you will see his skin crackling like a pig's as
he roasts on the faggots? Stand back there, I say, or you'll have an
arquebuse butt dropped on your honoured toes."
The officer swelled with his triumph and made it linger by passage
through many streets, and from out of the darkness beyond the glare of
the torches came peltings of stone and garbage which made the
procession for the prisoners a very martyrdom. But worse lay beyond.
They drew up at last before a building whose horrid taint caused even
the callous Spaniards to moderate their shouts and jeers. The officer
too changed his bluster to a tone that was half-defiant, half-cowed as
he faced the shrouded nameless creature that answered his summons at
the gate, and the soldiers of the guard redoubled their watchfulness,
knowing full well the desperation of any poor wretch that came within
grip of the Inquisition.
Indeed, had a chance been offered, the secretary, through sheer horror
of her sex being discovered when handled by the torturers, would have
thrown herself upon the weapons of the guard, and so earned a quick
death, even with the dreadful knowledge that to do so would take her
away from this princely patron whom she had so faithfully guarded, and
whom she so madly adored. But the soldiers were ready for all such
desperate attempts, and kept firm grip on the fetters, and when the
cowled familiars of the Inquisition took over ward of them, and the
doors closed, equal care was shown by these new guardians.
"By my faith," said Rupert, "you do us high honour, _Señores_, with all
this heavy escort. Buccaneers must be very lusty blades, or you
Spaniards must be nervous by constitution. Why, _Señores_, it hardly
stands to your dignity that it should take a round dozen of you to
handle a couple of poor wretches that are chained at both wrist and
leg."
But the echoes of the cold stone passages gave the only answer to his
words. The cowled, soulless familiars uttered no word of a sound.
The sad procession wound down steps of stone, into a long row of
dungeons smelling of earth, and of these there seemed an inordinate
quantity, burrowed out from amongst the very roots of the city. In
most was a dank, cold silence, but two emitted groans from some part of
their black recesses, and from one the faint glow of a fire shone out
into the alley, and with it came the smell of grilling flesh. But by
no word or sound did the familiars show that they appreciated these
things. They pressed on their way with noiseless tread, and held on to
their prisoners with an iron clutch. They were most daunting gaolers.
The prisoners were flung together into one dungeon, and the door closed
with soft heaviness on their heels. The place was black as the grave,
and smelt too like a grave of new-turned earth.
The secretary lay on the damp floor where she had pitched, a prey to
the worst despair. But the Prince undauntedly began to make
exploration, treading with caution to avoid pitfalls which are common
in these places, and not resting till with his hands he had traced out
the whole of the walls and the floor. But at last he too flung himself
on the ground. "We're built in all ways by cemented stone," said he,
"so we need not risk our dignity by trying to break gaol. There's
nothing against which we can grind these bracelets from our wrists and
shanks, or we'll contrive to make a fight of it somehow and at least
die like gentlemen. So we must e'en be philosophers, Master Laughan,
and take what comes."
"That woeful mermaiden----" said the secretary.
"Pish! you fool. I tell you there was no mermaiden. It's the mere
fortune of war, and it's my one consolation that they can do their
ugliest on me and yet they'll not learn my name. It'll be a sharp
time, lad, for both of us when they begin their devilish torturings,
but I know you're as staunch as myself, and I thank you in advance for
carrying out your service to me faithfully to the end."--And with that
he turned on his side and promptly went off into heavy sleep.
To the poor secretary no wink of sleep would bring relief. Death or
torture she could have faced bravely; but the thought that her sex must
be discovered drove her well-nigh crazy. For consider what it meant:
Rupert would learn for the first time that she was indeed a maid, and
he would die sickened at her shamelessness in following him, and she
would die beside him, knowing that after all that had been endured, she
had at the very last lost his esteem and affection.
Wearily the hours dragged on, and how many they were cannot be told
here, as there was no means of reckoning them. But at last the door
opened and again those noiseless familiars entered, bearing lights.
The secretary, poor soul, attempted a jest by way of carrying a brave
front. "We think little enough of your inn, Landlord, so far," she
gibed. "See to it that you improve the service from now on, or our
recommendation will bring you little further custom."
But they answered by no word, and as the cowls hid all of their faces,
there was no way of seeing how they took it. Once more with iron grip
these silent men took the prisoners in charge, five familiars to each,
and led them out along the passageways.
There was little enough of dignity about the judgment chamber of the
Inquisition when it was arrived at. It was just a bare room, furnished
meanly with a bench, a table and a curtain. And in the middle of the
room the prisoners were drawn up and stood with the familiars, waiting.
From behind the curtain from time to time there came the faint rustle
of movement, and, in little gusts, the smell of burning charcoal and
heated iron.
There is a certain intolerableness about waiting like this when one
expects the worst indignities that human ingenuity can put upon one;
though that doubtless is part of the calculated cruelty on which this
accursed Inquisition coldly prides itself. But Prince Rupert, like the
gallant gentleman that he was, had a power of mind that rose above the
pinch of the moment. An idea had come to his mind during the night for
an improvement in that process of mezzotint engraving in which he was
so interested, and calmly and scientifically, with his accustomed clear
phrases he commenced to discuss it with the secretary. There was no
mention in his speech of the perils which threatened them, no quiver of
fear or annoyance lest his invention should be left incomplete by those
who became his heirs. But in that gristly judgment chamber he spoke
with as much ease and interest in his subject as though he had been
seated giving audience to his artistic friends at The Hague.
But the five familiars who held their clutch on him, and the other five
who held the secretary, never for one instant relaxed their muscles,
neither did they show by any movement or word that they were conscious
that a word had been spoken. They were uncomfortable creatures.
At last, however, the Inquisitors themselves entered, one, a young man,
black-avised and sturdy, and two elders whose peaked beards were grey
and venerable. A monk in russet brown sneaked in at their heels.
The Inquisitors seated themselves at the bench before the table. The
monk stood apart with hands folded over his crucifix and head bent.
His lips mumbled as he repeated his office. The younger man took the
centre of the bench, and commenced the Inquisition. He spent little
time in beating about the bush. "It is reported to me," he said, "that
you two are heretics."
"If the definition implies that we are earnest members of the Reformed
Church," said Rupert with a courtly bow, "I accept it, _Señor_, both
for myself and my companion."
"So," said the Inquisitor, "you choose to beard us to our faces?
Father," he said to the monk, "offer them your holy symbol. Perhaps
the devil speaks only with their voices, and with their lips and hearts
they may give another answer."
The monk stepped up to the prisoners, holding his crucifix to be
kissed, but each in turn shook a determined head. "Neither by word nor
sign do I become apostate," said Rupert civilly, and the secretary with
an effort made her voice firm and repeated his words.
The monk's eyes gleamed, and he stood back to his place. The dark
Inquisitor frowned. "You must know where you are, and you must know
well what will be the result of this obstinacy?"
"Yes," said the Prince calmly, "you will next prove that you are brutes
and the sons of brutes by putting us to the torture. We shall accept
what we cannot avoid, but we shall not turn our religion. I should
think shame of myself, _Señor_, if I accepted a faith which was sullied
by the adherence of bloody-minded men like yourself."
The dark Inquisitor flushed till his face was almost black. "You shall
regret that," he snarled. "I will look on and give directions whilst
every muscle of your body is made to quiver with agony."
"_Señor_," said the Prince with a bow, "you show that you have every
talent developed to the full which could be of use to a coward and a
butcher."
The dark man leaped to his feet and beat the table a blow with his
fist. For the moment he was inarticulate with rage. But the two older
men who sat on the bench had respect for the dignity of their office,
and they leaned forward, and in whispers did what they could to pacify
him. He had a struggle with his passion, and looked as though he could
have struck either of them for their interference; the monk also came
forward, significantly raising his crucifix, as though to show that
they were assembled there for the purposes of their Church alone; and
presently with an angry scowl he sank back again on to the bench, and
nodded impatient assent to the whispers.
But if ever the thirst for a cruel vengeance showed in a man's face it
shone from the dark Inquisitor's then.
He nodded his head at the prisoners. "Presently," he said, and looked
towards the curtain, which defaced one side of the room, with an eye
that was ravenous in its hunger.
"It would be affectation to misunderstand you, _Señor_," said Rupert in
his grand manner. "Presently you will torture me as few men have been
tortured before, just to appease your private spite--you that dare not
meet me face to face with a sword in your fingers. Your Church should
be proud of so doughty a champion, though in God's truth I fear you are
forgetting this minute that there is such a thing as a Church."
The Inquisitor winced as though he had been struck, and the dark flush
died from his face. He let his eyes droop to the table before him, and
kept them there sunk in thought. His face worked with the violence of
his feelings. The judgment chamber was steeped in an intolerable
silence.
Twice the older men who sat beside him on the bench brought their grey
beards to his ear, and whispered. But impatiently he waved them aside.
The monk in the russet gown watched him narrowly as though he could
read the tumult of his thoughts, and at last, as though to lead them in
the path he would wish, kissed his crucifix and reverently placed it on
the table beneath the Inquisitor's twitching face.
The man sprung back as though it had stung him, and his face still
worked in silence. But at last he spoke. "You are right, father. And
you have saved me from a deadly sin. I am not fitted to be an
Inquisitor, and after to-day I resign my office. But for now I am
still here, and justice remains to be done, and the honour of the holy
Church vindicated. Prisoners," he cried, turning to the two before
him, "you shall not be put to the question after our usual methods.
From your own lips I will judge you and give sentence. Again, I ask,
Are you heretics?"
Prince Rupert shrugged his shoulders. "_Señor_," he said, "you are
somewhat wearisome. I have answered that question once already in the
affirmative. We both happen to be gentlemen; if you had been one also,
you would have known that our honour would forbid us to make change so
suddenly."
The dark Inquisitor bit his lip. It was clear that he had quite a mind
to flare out afresh. But with a violent effort he controlled himself.
The two older men leaned towards him, with evident intention of lending
their advice. But impatiently he waved them aside and turned a livid
face on the prisoners.
"Be it so," he said. "You shall be judged on that confession. The
personal insult avails nothing here either in mitigation or addition to
your sentences. Your contumacy is proved beyond doubt, and this Holy
Office casts you forthwith from its tender care."
"So that it rids me of your society, _Señor_," said Rupert, "I care not
what others of your devilish compatriots you hand me over to."
"You will be transferred from our keeping to the secular arm, and on
the afternoon of this very day you will take part in an act of faith
already arranged for three other obstinate heretics. You who hold
them, remove the prisoners. And," he shrieked, thrusting himself in an
ecstasy of passion half across the table, "if they offer to speak, beat
in their faces."
Two of the familiars stepped back, each with a heavy iron bar uplifted
in his hands, and under this persuasion the prisoners kept silence.
Then the men in charge turned them round and marched them out of the
judgment chamber.
Formally they were handed over to armed guards in another part of the
building, and these put on over their clothing, gabardines of coarse
canvas, named San Benito robes, which were painted grotesquely with
flames flickering upwards, and devils in black and red fully equipped
with hoof and horn. So the victims were decked ready for the sacrifice.
Nor was the sacrifice to be kept long in waiting, and the secretary
stoutened her heart and thanked God that this glorious Prince whom she
served was great enough to offer himself as a martyr for his faith, and
that she would have the privilege alone of all those that had followed
him of being with him to the last, and sharing his end. The thoughts
of pain and indignity were gone; if her sex were discovered during the
burning, at least it would be when it was too late to snatch her from
death; and so to the last she would avoid shame from the eyes of this
great patron whom she so truly loved.
The doors opened, and the troop marched out with the prisoners in
charge, three other poor wretches with joints dislocated by torturings
also hobbling along by their side. The streets hummed with people.
The windows were gay with sight-seers. And presently, when they came
to the _plaza_, where five stakes sprouted up each from its pyre of
faggots, there were stands built so that no citizen might miss the
spectacle of the day. It may be thought that the present historian
exaggerates concerning this: but on her honour, these bloody-minded
Spaniards look upon an Act of Faith, (as they term the burning of those
who refuse the idolatrous Faith of Rome) as we at home in England look
upon an innocent bull-baiting or a dog-fight.
"Keep a bright face, my Stephen," whispered the Prince as they were
marched along. "It would grieve me if these curs had the satisfaction
of thinking that they had cowed us."
"I could smile," said the secretary, "when I think of the pleasure that
mermaiden will feel at having been so clever with her prophecy."
"Pooh!" said Rupert, "you and your mermaiden! I'll never believe there
was one, and that's my dying conviction. What think you of my
diplomacy, Stephen, with that black-avised Inquisitor? If I hadn't
maddened that man into losing his temper, we'd have been writhing in
their filthy torture-chamber this minute. However, lad, enough of this
sullying talk. Let us turn to that genteeler matter that occupied us
before."--And with that he spoke once more upon the elaboration of that
process of mezzotint engraving in which during politer days he had
taken so clever and abiding an interest.
In due order the five prisoners were marched out into the _plaza_ and
there under the burning midday sunshine were fastened by chains to the
stakes which stood out from the piles of faggots. The audience ceased
to chatter; the Inquisitors and the other dignitaries of the city came
up and took their places on a high draped dais in due order of
precedence; and all was ready for the torchmen to set light to the
pyres. But at the last moment one of the three other prisoners,
ashen-white, screamed out, "I recant! I recant!" and immediately a
monk went to him and received his last confession and pronounced
absolution. More time was occupied whilst this wretch received the
reward of his apostasy, for as is well known, all those of the
condemned, that in words embrace the Roman faith before it is yet too
late, are privileged to enjoy strangulation before that they are burnt.
The which operation of course occupies time.
But at last this wretch was announced to be dead, and indeed hung very
loosely in his chains in advertisement of his decease, and the supreme
moment arrived. The torchbearers advanced with flame that flickered
pale and dizzily under the sunlight, and the poor secretary, who
intended to devote these last moments to commending her soul to the
Most High, could think of nothing but that disastrous mermaiden who had
caused all this anguish and disaster. But Prince Rupert was ruffled
neither in words nor confession. "Into Thy hands, O Lord God," he
said, "I commend my spirit, with a full acknowledgment of my sins,
which be many, and a humble reminder that I have at all times
endeavoured to do my duty. O Lord receive my spirit into Thine own
place, and punish bitterly these Spaniards that are Thine enemies.
Amen."--With which prayer his devotions ended, and he returned again to
the grave discussion of those improvements in mezzotint. The secretary
does not see that a better proof can be given of this glorious man's
greatness of mind. What other creature on earth could bring his
attention to such talk when so horrid a death immediately threatened
him?
The torchmen were actually putting their flames against the tar with
which part of these pyres is daubed, when the interruption came which
saved the prisoners' lives for the time being. A horseman clattered
into the _plaza_ on a half-foundered stallion, crying that the _auto da
fé_ should stop. The black-avised Inquisitor in a passion leaped to
his feet and shouted that what was ordered should be gone through with.
But the torchmen, halting between two authorities, plainly dawdled with
their work, and the newcomer reined in his staggering horse and threw
up an hand for silence.
"Hear me," he cried, "and then say if I was wrong in interrupting. A
parcel of buccaneers under Wick and Watkin (whose accursed names you
well know) are coming against this city directly. They took me
prisoner and set me free to come here and deliver to you their impudent
will. They ask no ransom, being confident of their own power of taking
what they want, but they hear that you have some of their number as
prisoners, and through me they give fair warning that if harm comes to
them, they on their part will burn every prisoner of the Spaniards that
they take, regardless of sex or age. And," concluded the messenger
simply, "they will do it. They are men that will stick at nothing,
once they have passed their word."
A riot of voices filled the plaza. It seemed there were two parties in
this city. The Inquisitors were determined not to be robbed of their
prey, and these were backed up by the fanatics amongst the populace,
and by those reckless, cruel few who did not wish to be baulked of a
spectacle. And ranged against these were the women and the more
responsible citizens, who feared the buccaneers horribly, distrusted
the defences, and dreaded that the threatened burning was very near to
their own greasy skins as a retaliation. Weapons were drawn, and it
seemed as though there would be civil war.
But once more the man on the horse directed the doings of his
fellow-citizens. Again he threw up his hands frantically beckoning,
and again with some trouble he obtained a hearing. "The captain of the
port bid me say," he shouted, "that if he could get his galleys manned,
he would go out and tackle these buccaneers forthwith. But at present
disease has been busy on the row-bank, and he has few slaves to man the
oars. It seems to me, Señores, that you have some recruits yonder
chained up against those stakes? Why waste them? And if they are
killed by their friends in the ordinary course of action, why the fault
lies outside this city, and we get the ordinary treatment of war,
whatever betides."
Again the riot of words roared through the plaza. But it was clear
that the balance of the sides was altered. The proposal of the man on
the horse carried weight; the Inquisitors and their fanatics were
hopelessly outnumbered and outvoted; and presently the torchmen stamped
out the flames, and men came up, and set about unlinking the chains
which held the prisoners to the stakes.
Oh God! what a revulsion that respite caused to one! The secretary was
well-nigh fainting with gratitude when they unchained her. Life, dear
life still was left. Only a slavery in the galleys, lay before them to
be endured, only the lash, and the baking sun, and the heart-breaking
oar for a sentence after all! It seemed in comparison to those fearful
flames which had been so near, to be the gift of some delicious dream.
But Prince Rupert viewed the change in a different light. He saw only
the dreadful indignities to which he was condemned, and his pride gave
him more torture than the flames could have offered if he had been
scorched and burnt to cinders at that horrid stake. His face blackened
with rage and his hands clenched and gripped convulsively. "Almost,"
he muttered, "I am beginning to give credence to your mermaiden, Master
Laughan. The mere fortune of war, unassisted, could scarce have
brought me as low as this. The galleys for me! And sent there by
Spaniards!"
The secretary's heart ached with a new pain as she heard him. "God
help the man," thought she, "that's chained to Rupert Palatine!"
[Illustration: "THE SECRETARY WAS OCCUPIED IN LEADING HER OWN."]